Bijayini Satpathy’s Trikāyā questions the gendered body

Trikāyā (Three Bodies) by Odissi exponent Bijayini Satpathy, does not set out to retell the Mahabharata , but explores three defining moments from the epic to address a question that has followed her across years of performance — how does a classical dance form, steeped in codified masculine and feminine vocabularies, imagine a body that exists beyond binaries? The work unfolds through Arjuna preparing for battle, Urvashi’s curse after her rejection, and Brihannala’s final dance before returning to the battlefield as Arjuna. Together, they become an inquiry into the gendered body in Odissi, where mythology serves not as narrative alone, but as a means to examine identity, desire and vulnerability.