Jyoti Kala Mandir
Jyoti Kala Mandir, established in 1993, founded by Guru Jyoti Rout is a non-profit organization, which serves the international community. JKM represents the future for Indian Music, Dance and Mardala in USA and India. The organization is dedicated towards preserving and promoting India’s vibrant classical music and dance. The institution not only trains the students in music and dance, it also conducts mega events like dance and music festivals, workshops, seminars, dance recitals by eminent artists, exponents in various fields in India and USA.
Today, Jyoti Kala Mandir is a thriving community of families, dancers, and second-generation teachers. JKM offers ongoing classes for students at all levels.
All of the Jyoti Kala Mandir students around the globe are trained by Guru Jyoti Rout in her own unique choreographies and teaching techniques.
2004
Tanaya Pattnaik
Amanda Geroy
2006
Gayatri Joshi
Ishani Behera
Monishita Rai
Shalini Goel
2007
Keshini Samerawickreme
2008
Shraddha Suman
Alisha Chakraborty
2009
Neha Nayak
Mallika Bhandarkar
2012
Nilanjana Roy
Vanani Vasundhara
Sanuja Das
2013
Jeevika Bhat
Jessical Baral
2014
Alyssa Sahu
Naiha Haridasa
2016
Deepa Biswakarma
Sarika Pradhan
2021
Sanskriti Bebortha
2022
Arshia Desarkar
Service and Dedication to Odissi Dance Oriya Article, Attyeb, February 18, 2014
Will You Dance
Newsletter by Gina, Taos New Mexico, March 2014
I have a confession, Beloved Reader. I want you to know that my heart has been broken. Recently. The truth is, I have fallen in love. There is nothing in the world to break one’s heart faster than love. Because when it happens you realize the entire course of your life has irreversibly changed and there is nothing you can do about it. You could insist on clinging to the brittle shells of your former reality and manage to avoid being deeply moved but then you would be living some sort of half-life. For, make no mistake. Love will move you to the soaring pinnacles and dismal troughs of human experience and through all the in-between spaces too.
Guru Jyoti Rout is a master of East Indian Classical Odissi dance, an art that is accompanied by extensive costume and makeup, bells around the ankles, stomping foot movements, and exaggerated facial expressions. Her specialty is the emotional expression behind the movements. Watching her face run with tears as she dances a sorrowful dance or feeling the room fill with utter beauty as she dances a peaceful dance is stunningly beautiful.
I had the privilege of studying with Jyoti Rout in New Mexico over the last weekend. I don’t wish to be a Classical Odissi dancer. I was studying to deepen my ability to express my emotions as a public speaker. In response to a question she was asked by another of the workshop participants, she said, To truly master the ability to transmit emotions on stage takes incredible devotion. You must love it. You must be 100% committed to get a 100% result.
The more I heard her talk, the more I realized,I have to find out what she knows. I have to be with her. Suddenly I saw a whole lot of my time and resources being 100% committed to getting a plane ticket to California so I could study with her. Love is inconvenient. I was busy doing other things but the more I looked at her round, sunny little face beaming out at me the more in love I became. My future plans were suddenly being organized around her existence in a completely irrational fashion.
When I heard that Jyoti was giving a performance after the workshop that evening, my plans to leave New Mexico and head back to Denver were suddenly derailed. There was no way I was going to miss Jyoti’s dance. The only problem with this was that my parents and my sister’s family were planning to stay the night near Denver so they could have dinner with me en route to St. Louis, where they would be driving with a Uhaul, my sister, my brother in law, and my only nephew. She was moving across the country and it was my last chance to see her for who knows how long. Torn between spending time with my family and with pursuing the delicious invitation of my new horizons, my heart shattered into several jagged little pieces, trampled under the proud stomp of Jyoti Rout’s painted feet, the rhythmic chant of her bells laughing through the hypnotic music.
Every time you truly say yes to one possibility you must say no to countless other possibilities. We look with dissatisfaction at our lives, we long for change, yet when it comes we grieve because, in some secret and very human way, we also want everything to stay the same. Getting what you ask for is a miracle. It’s also heartbreaking when you realize everything you have to give up to receive it.
I woke at 6 a.m. after several days in a row of rigorous training combined with very little sleep and drove the abandoned backcountry highways from northern New Mexico to Denver. Dusty and stiff I straggled in, straight from the road, to meet with a student of mine in a Denver cafe. Of course, what was burning most in his heart was the very thing I had been studying for the last four days. He wanted to know how to move people when he performed.Your audience feels what you feel,I told him.If you aren’t willing to feel it, they won’t feel it either.My heart raw from being stretched in every conceivable way for several days on end, I gazed at my student with great tenderness. I was completely willing to allow myself to be moved in that moment by his innocent hunger. To feel the connection between us zinging with all the sweetness and all the ache of life and to know the painful truth: that only through heartbreak would he find what he sought.
If we are working to free our expression we struggle with the willingness to be vulnerable. To commit 100%. To be fully engaged in the dance of life and to feel everything there is to feel, whether pleasurable or painful. For how else can we move others but to be willing to be completely moved ourselves? Jyoti Rout believes that the most important part of dance is surrender. To be so soft that the divine dances through her. When love comes, whether it is for a teacher, a student, a vision, a business, a lover, a friend, or in any other way, it shatters your expectations, rips you from your moorings, and thrusts you into naked vulnerability. When it comes for you, will you hold fast to your comforting tragedy or, Beloved, will you dance?
Older Articles “Jyoti Rout has no interest in simply making beautiful dances, even though by all accounts, her performances are stunningly beautiful.” Payton,Brenda.The Oakland Tribune 1 April 2005
“She’s after something more profound. As a dancer, choreographer and teacher of Odissi dance, a classical Indian dance form, she is trying to channel and communicate the essence of spirituality.” Payton,Brenda. The Oakland Tribune 1 April 2005
“If the ideas are weighty, Rout communicates them with an alluring airiness. Not only do they make sense, they seem absolutely achievable. She possesses a clarity that is almost startling.” Payton,Brenda.The Oakland Tribune 1 April 2005
“Rout displays an impressive range of emotions. Although the audience is unable to understand the mudras or the story being told by the singer, Rout’s facial expressions gave meaning and emotional relevance to the dances. The audience may not understand the mudras, but they can understand the emotions motivating it.” Salazar-Rubio, Sofia. The Daily Californian 14 April 2005
“With bodies intertwined and arranged to create human filigree, the group poses were carefully crafted works of art; the radiance of the costumes and poised grace of the dancers were a gourmet feast for the eyes.” Salazar-Rubio, Sofia.The Daily Californian 14 April 2005
“Rout is known for the range of her dance as well as the depth of her expressions. Captivating the audience with her style, she captures the subtlest of emotions with relative ease.” Ravinder, Archana.India Post 19 September 2003
“The bonding is evident. While teaching, she stops to help a student adjust her dupatta, a scarf-like cloth worn by Indian women, and jokes with the students after class.” Shah, Rima.Bay Area Living 14 July 2003
“Rout teaches her students to examine what they are feeling and to use that in their dancing.” Shah, Rima.Bay Area Living 14 July 2003
“It’s obvious that Rout instills a respect for that (Odissi) tradition in her dancers but she also gives them room to express themselves.” Nishioka, Joyce. Asian Week 3 April 2003
“If you see her dancing Odissi, you’d swear she is the goddess for whom the dance is supposed to be performed.” Dixit, Meg. India West 3 March 1995
Reflecting on my last year abroad, I cannot imagine a better way to culminate my international experience than to embrace dance so fully and completely, reevaluating all stresses and prioritizing the present (something we students may find difficult so focused are we on the future). Training was exhausting. But that was my intention never before had I dedicated my mind and body 100% to something entirely physical, like dance, for an extended period of time. Exposure to the new has been the trend of my past year, and one that I hope to continue as I move forwards in life and career. JKM Odissi training proved to continue this progression of new discovery: there is always something to surprise you, whether it be the complexities of India or the ingenious reverse 5-stepping interlaced with a 4-count taal. This training is truly universal, and a student of any level (beginner to advanced) would be able to access and connect with dance through Jyoti Apa's methods.
On a personal level, I perceived tremendous strengthening, both physical and mental. Meditating and dancing everyday set my routine. After an initial resistance, I ultimately abandoned personal pursuits that were interfering with this tunnel-vision and turned my full attention towards spiritual and physical growth. My academic and professional life trained me to constantly work and to feel guilty when I am not doing work. But it is not very often that we are given the golden opportunity to work on ourselves, recognizing in full the simplicity of this act.
Jyoti Apa has worked incredibly hard to make this experience possible for dancers around the world, and I was thrilled to meet so many new people: professional dancers, professional musicians, JKM India students, international students, Lingipur locals. We ate delicious meals, reveled in joyful company every day, and experienced the local sites and excitements together. I feel blessed to be a part of this community, and so fortunate to have experienced something so unique alongside our prominent guru.
It is difficult to find time to escape to India for a month but life and work continue to be unpredictable, and you never know how next year will turn out! It is worth the effort to engage in such a remarkable experience. I was greatly influenced by my time in Bhubaneswar, and I look forward to continuing my learning when I return to California. Now, if I could only bring back some chhena porra, my life (and the lives of everyone around me, I think) would be complete!
--Katia Chaterji
Jyoti Apa supportively taught me a new dance called Ananda Bharavi Pallavi. I went to her studio in Fremont, California for special classes for many months.
Finally, the day came when we went to India. When we got to Bhubaneshwar, I could not wait to go to Jyoti Apa's house where the dance school is. Welcome,my dance teacher said. There everyone treated us incredibly nice. Jyoti Apa's sisters gave us yummy food and treated us warmly. Everyone over there was having a wonderful time.
The studio was near grassy fields and had a peaceful surrounding. Inside there was a huge portrait of Jyoti Apa dancing. I thought, so this is where we will practice. In the afternoon, I got to see all the students of JKM. They were beautiful and looked so happy. The musicians, who I knew from before, came and settled down with their instruments. I was happy to see their smiling faces. The room was full of people.
Jyoti Apa came down from her room in an elegant dress. She looked radiant and beautiful. Then she danced with each of us with great energy and joy. She adjusted our stepping, our movements and made suggestions to bring out the best in us. I was in awe to see Jyoti Apa in such greatness.
Finally, it was the day of the performance. My grandparents had bought me new jewelry to wear. The silver jewelry had designs and patterns on them. They shined a lot in the light. They were beautiful and I was thankful to them.
After I put on the jewelry I thought, would I be able to dance as elegantly as the jewelry looked? I was nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous because many people were going to see me dance, and I was excited because it was my first time dancing in India.
When I went inside the auditorium, I stopped dead at my tracks.Wow! I thought to myself, there are hundreds of people here. I saw Jyoti Apa and went to her.You ll do fine, she said as I peeked through the curtains. I kept telling myself, you could do it. Just then, the musicians went on stage. All of them were dressed in traditional Indian clothing. I was getting tensed and my hands started to sweat. The butterflies in my stomach started to e wiggle lot. I went on stage, took a deep breath, and started to dance.
While I was dancing, I could feel the confidence build. I noticed that my nervousness melt away. It occurred to me that I remembered all of the dance steps. This was because I learned the dance from a very supportive dance teacher, Jyoti Apa.
After the dance, I told myself, I did it. I got many good jobs and congrats from many in the audience. I still could not believe that I did it. I felt happy and sad at the same time. The days in the dance classes in Bhubaneshwar had ended. This was a great experience and something I will never forget. I would come back and dance again here. I could not have done this without Jyoti Apa's help.
- Doetri Ghosh