Baisali Mohanty

In 2017, she was conferred with the prestigious Aarya Award for her contribution to Indian classical dance by 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

She is an ALC Global Fellow for the year 2015-16 affiliated to University of Oxford.

In 2015, she founded the Oxford Odissi Centre at University of Oxford to popularise Indian classical dance at the varsity. Beside holding regular Odissi dance classes for members of University of Oxford, the centre also conducts Odissi dance workshops at other institutions including University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, University College London (UCL), King's College London, University of Manchester and University of Edinburgh among others.

In 2013, she was felicitated by India’s National Commission for Women at New Delhi on occasion of International Women’s Day for her outstanding achievement. In the same year, her dance composition paying tribute to the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim won her the top prize at Delhi University dance contest across all categories.

Baisali Mohanty (born 5 August 1994) is an Indian classical dancer and choreographer, author, columnist and analyst of foreign and public policy. She is a regular contributor on foreign policy and strategic affairs to several prestigious international publications including American business magazine Forbes, The Huffington Post, The Diplomat and openDemocracy, London. She is the founder of Oxford Odissi Centre that is involved in promotion and training of Odissi dance at University of Oxford and other leading institutions in the United Kingdom.

Baisali Mohanty was born on 5 August 1994 in Puri, Odisha, to renowned feminist, poet and author Manasi Pradhan and Radha Binod Mohanty, an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology.