Bhubaneswar, Dec. 21: Odissi's premier gurus have been male dancers, but now female artistes represent the dance form. This has created a dearth of good male artistes.

Known for its graceful postures, even today Odissi often goes through the social complex that it is meant for female dancers.

Male artistes, who pursue the dance form, usually need to convince their parents that it will not turn them feminine.

"When I first expressed interest to learn Odissi, my parents were not too happy. But, I never gave up and it's been five years now. Their attitude is also changing towards the art form," said Rahul Roy, a 25-year-old Odissi dancer from Pompi Paul's Kalpodip troupe, which is taking part at the Odissi International festival.

Indrajit Sircar, another young dancer, said there was a misconception that Odissi was a dance for females whereas the lord of dance Nataraj himself is a male god.

"But, many male dancers are slowly breaking the stigma, and many male gurus will be ready in future," he said.

USA-based artiste Douglas Ridings said the complex was not the reason for scarcity of male dancers here.

"I feel it's a very difficult form of dance and its subtlety of expressions and poised movements are not easy to perform. I wish there were more male dancers to perform Odissi in Seattle, because it gives you more options to design choreographies," said Ridings.

Ridings and another male dancer are part of the Urvasi Dance Ensemble from USA at the fest.

"Odissi compositions involve a lot of emotions that as an artiste I relate to in the female way," said Paul, who has five male dancers in her troupe.