Sonali Mishra
Artist Bio
Sonali Mishra was born and raised in the US, where her parents emigrated to from Odisha in the late 1960s. She was initiated into Odissi in her early teens under Gurus Smt. Chitralekha Patnaik, Smt. Ellora Patnaik, and Sri Devraj Patnaik. Since 1995 she has been travelling to Odisha for further training and refinement under Gurus Sri Ramesh Chandra Jena, Guru Sri Bichitrananda Swain, and Guru Smt. Aruna Mohanty at the Orissa Dance Academy. She received additional guidance under Guru Smt. Nandita Behera in LA during that time. She continued her training In India at Srjan under Guru Smt. Sujata Mohapatra and Guru Sri Ratikant Mohapatra. Sonali is receiving additional guidance under Delhi-based Guru Smt. Kumkum Lal. Sonali has also completed 4 phases of the ‘Navarasa Sadhana’ actor’s workshop conducted by Kodiyattam artiste and scholar G. Venu in Kerala.
Sonali has performed as a soloist in numerous venues throughout the US, UK, Canada, India, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, and Malaysia. She has also conducted a number of workshops and lecture-demonstrations at various schools and universities in cities throughout India, USA, and Europe. In 2014, Sonali founded an online quarterly magazine, Global Rasika, dedicated to cultivate critical thinking and discourse in the field of Odissi dance.
Sonali is a recipient of the ‘2020 Devi Award for Advancing Arts and Culture through Dance’ by the New Indian Express Group presented by the Honourable Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik. She also received the ‘2018 Aarya Award for Women Acheivers’ by the /Delhi-based Parichay Foundation.
Sonali received her BA in English from the University of Michigan and an MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She relocated to India in 2011 when she got married, and is currently dividing her time between Vrndavan and Bhubaneswar.
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Performance
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Blue costume offering flowers to Jagannath
August 21, 2013Drive East Festival
Pink costume - with 1 hand up
May 8, 2016Teatro El Apeadero
Dim image with orange-rust costume
May 5, 2019Naari: Honouring the Feminine
Gray costume in 'kali' pose.
April 19th, 2017Tagore Centre
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Media
“The label of a foreigner or American ceased to exist,” said Mishra. “As a dancer, I had to work harder to raise my standard to that of the level of dancers in India.”
Odissi dancer Sonali Mishra is of Indian ancestry, but she was born and raised in the United States. She moved to India permanently in 2011 after marrying into an Indian family.
"I consciously try to remain spiritually connected so that i can be a conduit for the same for the audiences.""
Sonali is a recipient of the ‘2020 Devi Award for Advancing Arts and Culture through Dance’ by the New Indian Express Group presented by the Honourable Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik.
"My rationale for making the shift was actually naïve and rather simplistic, and to an extent perfectly in sync with my tendency to dive into a situation based on my instinct without over-thinking the details."
I would call this my chapter one of the transition — the first stage of which was to begin to let go of an idealized image of the ‘motherland;’ to do my best to see and accept whatever inherent inconsistencies, but with compassion.
"A garlanded image of Lord Jagannath sits in a place of honor, and Sonali Mishra brings him tribute, her cupped hands filled with blossoms that she scatters at his feet."
I believed the I could make this transition seamlessly and return to my ‘roots,’ so to speak.
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