Begin the Odissi by standing with your feet close together apart and your hands at your sides. As the beat begins, bend your elbows and touch your hands as if in prayer in front of your chest. Raise your right knee, point the toes of your right foot, and touch the inside of your left knee just below your knee.
Sink down into the first position of the Odissi. Place your right foot on the ground just over a shoulder's width apart. Turn your feet and your knees to the outside, and bend your knees, allowing your body to sink down. For those who have done ballet, this will look similar to a plié. Raise your arms to about shoulder height, bend your elbows, and hold your arms up with your fingers extended and your palms turned toward the center.
Sink down a little and lift up your right foot and slap it on the ground. Turn your head right as you do so. Pause a beat and then do the same with your left foot and look left. Slap both feet once more, pausing a beat in between.
Lift your right foot twice and then do the same with your left, looking right then left as you do so.
Begin slapping your feet one after the other without pausing for the beat in between. Remember to turn your head in the direction of the foot that's slapping on the ground. Try to incorporate your hands by turning them in small circles. Rotate your hands toward each other, down, to the outside, and back to their original position.
Pick up your right foot, but instead of slapping it on the ground, place your heel on the ground, wait a beat and then lift it up and slap your foot on the ground. Look right as you do this and then left as you do the same with your left foot.
Continue the steps found in Step 6, but instead of pausing a beat between each heel and foot slap, do the heel tap followed by the slap so it sounds like "tap, slap, tap, slap." Remember to turn your head in the direction of the foot that's moving as you do this.
Continue to refine the steps in Steps 1 to 7, and begin moving your upper body in the fluid manner. After sinking into the first position, circle your torso back and to the right while you raise your chin; circle your head in the same direction as your body. When you do the quicker steps, your head will tilt from side to side, away from the foot that's moving.