Durga Bor

🪔 About

Durga Bor is a distinguished figure in Odissi classical dance, known for her performances, teaching, choreography, and research. She began her studies in Odissi Classical Dance at Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado, where she majored in dance and philosophy. Subsequently, she pursued advanced training in New Delhi under Guru S. N. Jena at Triveni Kala Sangam, earning a five-year diploma. In 1985, she was invited by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Bombay (now Mumbai), to participate in an intensive workshop led by the renowned Odissi master, Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra. Bor further deepened her expertise in India, returning in 1989 for fourteen months after being awarded a Professional Development Fellowship by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). During this period, she studied choreography with Manoranjan Pradhan at the Odissi Research Centre and received intensive training from Guru Gangadhar Pradhan at the Orissa Dance Academy in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, engaging in both practical study and research. She was based in Amsterdam for thirteen years, where she taught dance at institutions such as the ISTAR School for Indian Music and Dance, De Nieuw Amsterdam Theatre School, and Muziekschool Amsterdam's Wereld Muziekschool. Returning to the United States in 1994, Durga Bor began teaching classical Indian dance and South Asian dance history and theory at Cornell University in 1995, a position she held until her retirement in 2016. She also served as an Assistant Professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2007 and periodically taught at Syracuse University. In 2005, she received an AIIS Senior Fellowship in the Performing Arts, enabling her to return to Orissa to continue her studies with Gurus Manoranjan Pradhan and Gangadhar Pradhan, and to begin training with Sujata Mohapatra at Srujan. During this time, she performed at the annual Konarak Dance and Music Festival. Bor has performed and conducted workshops in North America, Europe, and India, both as a soloist and with other dancers. She is also noted for her experimental cross-cultural dance movements, having choreographed and performed "Durga's Dance."