Surendra Nath Jena

Soon Jena left Odisha and moved to Delhi, where he joined Nritya Niketan in 1966 as an assistant, and later joined Triveni Kala Sangam, an art institution in New Delhi as an independent teacher of Odissi Dance in the year 1967. He spent all his life here, teaching many foreign and Indian students and created his unique style of Odissi until his old age 2004. One day Odisha beckoned and Jena took a trip with one of his foreign students for performance in Bhubneshwar. After the performance, they went to see the famous Konark Sun Temple. This thirteenth-century temple's carving awed him. They symbolized his interpretation was so intense, it led to the creation of his unique style of Odissi with the first dance Konark Kanti in 1968. The dance imbibed stances and postures from Konark temple and other Odishan Temples, deftly choreographed into dances with music, into an entire style of Odissi, such that the great sculpture was transformed into the real and living.

In 1966 he came to Delhi and began to develop his own style of Odissi dance. This style is unique, enriched by his deeply researched appreciation of ancient literature and Odisha temple sculpture. His choreography is an inspired essay at bringing alive those poses captured in stone, reminiscent of temple carvings. He gives as much importance to feelings(Bhav), elements in dance, as he does to basic poses(Bhangi), his opinion that one is incomplete without the other. He upholds the ancient belief that Bhakti finds expression in dance and music, that itself is form of Sadhana.

Guru Surendra Nath Jena spent six months in Kolkata, to learn the art of Kathakali from Bal Krishna Menon. This Kerala dance form was highly sophisticated as compared to Jatra, which is why he decided to learn it. But he could not complete his learning due to lack of money. In the 1950s, Odissi developed a dance form that was rediscovered by Oriya artists, scholars, Gotipua Gurus and Maharis named Jayantika. He spent the first five years studying the style recreated from the testimony of old Devadasis/Mahari dance and gotipuas, or young boys dressed up as women who had replaced the Maharis. With the completion of his study, he received the Nrutya Bhushan degree in Odissi Dance in the year 1965–66.

In the 1930s, Odisha was a conglomeration of petty realms and kingdoms and the New Odisha Theatre troupe, was given boarding and lodging by the local raja. In the process, the troupe encountered many kinds of local rajas: many were wise enlightened like the Maharaja of Dassapala, and some embittered and whimsical like the Maharaja of Ranapur. His Jatra performances was a way of life, entwined with recreating myths of devotion, which left a deep imprint on Jena's mind, and created a rich resource that he draws upon for his Abhinaya compositions in subsequent years.

Surendra Nath Jena (10 October 1924 – 8 October 2007) created an entirely new Odissi dance style with an oeuvre of many compositions. This dance style incorporates the various aspects of Indian culture, such as temple sculpture, ancient dance, Sanskrit and vernacular literature, yoga, traditional painting, manuscripts, and philosophy. The entire music and dance choreography of these compositions were by Jena himself.