Sharmila Biswas has been esteemed as one of the proponent dancer in the domain of Classical Odissi dance form. She has also regarded as one of the leading choreographers in the field. She has also bagged the honor of being the senior most disciple of the celebrated, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
From the very beginning Sharmila Biswas has shown her interest in finding the origin of this traditional old temple dance. For that she started studying many vocabularies related to the age-old Oriya creative arts. There were ancient Mahari dancers i.e. temple dancers of Orissa. Shramila Biswas thoroughly researched on their life and works. In the due course she received training in various folk and tribal dance as well as on the music tradition of the Indian State Orissa. The guru Kalanidhi Narayan taught the art of Abhinay (expressional dance) to her.
In the year 1990, the American Dance Festival conducted a workshop. In the workshop Sharmila Biswas also took part and came into interaction with famous choreographers of the world. The most noted parts of Sharmila Biswas are her technique, stage design and original creativity in the compositions that she produces. Traditional Odissi dance through her versatility ambits to `experimental choreographic work`. Her choreography reflects the backgound of minutely researched knowledge of the conventional movement skills of India. With the help of all these, however she made it possible to shape up new forms and mediums in order to express this unparallel yet contemporary dance form.
Acknowledging her talent, in the year 1998 the Dept. Of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of West Bengal has conferred her the `Uday Shankar Award` for best choreography. The Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India and the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi has also awarded Sharmila Biswas with the Junior and Senior Fellowship Award in a subsequent manner. Doordarshan (Indian National Television) and `Indian Council of Cultural Relations`, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. Of India, the both have also marked her as the `Outstanding` artist.
Sharmila Biswas is also serving as the founder Chairperson of the institution `the Odissi Vision & Movement Centre`. It is the institution, which has been founded with the aim of `promotion of Indian Dance & Music through research, training and performances`. Sharmila Biswas believes that `our classical dance forms hold a vast heritage of knowledge, yet it need not be mummified pieces of movements and expressions`.
