Minati Mishra

Minati Mishra (1929 – 6 January 2020) was an Indian classical dancer and actress, known for her expertise in the Indian classical dance form of Odissi. She was reported in 2011 to be the oldest-living Odissi performer. The Government of India honored Mishra in 2012, with the fourth-highest civilian award of Padma Shri.

Early life Minati Mishra, née Minati Das, was born in 1929 in Cuttack, now in the Indian state of Odisha, to Basanta Kumar Das, a local school headmaster, She started to learn dance and music at an early age, theme-based dance under the tutelage of Ajit Ghosh and Banabihari Maity and Odissi from Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnayak, an Odissi dancer. In 1950, Minati Mishra started learning under Kelucharan Mahapatra, the well-known Odissi guru. The next year, she joined the Indian Institute of Free Arts for training under Pandanallur Chokkalingam Pillai and Meenakshisundaram Pillai. She debuted in 1956, the first of several performances she rendered, during the next three years, at a number of major cities in India. in Indology from the Philipp University of Marburg, Germany for a thesis on Natyashastra. In 1963, she was invited for a performance at the Berlin Film Festival.

Acting career Mishra acted in five Odia films. Her debut film Suryamukhi was released in 1963, followed by Jeevan Sathi, Sadhana, and Arundhati. All four received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Odia. She also acted in a 1963 Bengali film, Nirjana Saikate in which she has performed an Odissi dance number choreographed by Kelucharan Mahapatra. Apart from her film career she was also an A Grade artist at the All India Radio and was a recipient of Sangeet Prabhakar title for Hindustani vocal music.

Mishra was the principal of the Utkal Sangeet Mohavidyalaya, Bhubaneswar from 1964 till 1989.

Retirement Soon after the death of her husband, Nityananda Mishra, who was an engineer, in 1980, Mishra retired from dance performances and formally retired in 1990. She settled in Switzerland and devoted her time to dance festivals, lecture tours and workshops in Switzerland, Canada and India.

Filmography Her films include: She also received the Kalinga Shastriya Sangeet Parishad Award In 2012, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award of India.