Taking Kuchipudi beyond the village

The International Dance Research and Training Center (IDRTC) of Kuchipudi Village in Andhra Pradesh, is organising ‘Natya Bharathiyam’, a three-day festival of dance at Shilpakala Vedika, Hyderabad. The first day, April 25, saw many good performances by young talented dancers and seniors from the field.

This festival is being spearheaded by Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma, whose paternal great-grandfather Tadepalli Peraiya Sastry was the Guru of famous Kuchipudi performer Vempati Chinna Satyam. Peraiya Sastry and his lineage were known to support accompanists (mridangam, nattuvangam and literature) for Sampradhaya Bhagavathamelam.

Satyanarayana Sarma’s paternal grandfather Tadepalli Chandraiah was known for his Kuchipudi Pagativeshams and Kalapams. The first performance was by students of ‘Bharatha Naatyalaya’ under the guidance of Chitra Narayanan. The young students showed good stage presence. This was followed by a Kuchipudi performance by students of Dr Vasanth Kiran from Bangalore.

The students presented an item ‘Salaam Kuchipudi’ and followed it with a dance based on a ‘Tillana’ by Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna. This was followed by a performance by students of ‘Abhinaya Vani Nritya Niketan’ being trained by Chavali Bala Tripurasundari. Then came the performance by students of ‘Muvva Nritya Raga Nigamam’, which was lead by Dr Himabindu Kanoj.

The group depicted many scenes from the epic ‘Ramayana’ and the performance was very expressive and apt to the theme. The last performance of the day was by students of Surendranath from Vijayawada, who presented ‘Kuchipudi Sivadrumam’. This dance ballet was performed in the traditional way of ‘Kuchipudi style’ but had some visual screenings in between showing the old masters and the traditions.

By Jaywant Naidu