Kuchipudi notes

India has a rich tradition of music and dance in their sublime form and much of the temple art, sculptures, theatre, folklore, folk arts, street music and even traditional practices at home resonate with music and the signature of celestial dance. Even Gods danced and the dancing God shiva in Nataraja form is the most visible iconic depiction of what the great Lord was all about. Celestial dance is the greatest liberator of mind and body. The rhythmic swaying of lithe and sensuous bodies to the lilting and sometimes powerful high pitch music would transport not just the dancers but even the audience to a world of ecstasy from which will find it difficult to return.

Great artists and dance gurus have preserved these art forms for generations on end adding to the rich culture of the forms reflecting each era of history mankind had passed through. Indian dances are mainly Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathk, Kathakali, Mohinyattam, manipuri and Kuchipudi. Each of these dance forms are from a specific region of the country even though the aficanodos of these forms could be found anywhere in the country. The metropolises of India, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad has Gurus and schools that they run representing almost all the dance and music traditions of India.

Kuchipudi is a dance form that originated from an ubiquitous village by the same name in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state of India. Kuchipudi derives its name from the village Kuchelapuram. The technique of Kuchipudi makes use of fast rhythmic footwork and sculpturesque body movements. Stylized mime, using hand gestures and subtle facial expression, is combined with more realistic acting, occasionally including dialogues spoken by the dancers. For a long time, the art was presented only at temples and that too only for annual festivals of certain temples in Andhra Pradesh. According to tradition, Kuchipudi dance was originally performed only by men and they all belonged to the Brahmin community. These Brahmin families were known popularly as Bhagavathalu of Kuchipudi. The very first group of Brahmain Bhagavathulu of Kuchipudi was formed in 1502 AD. Their programs were offerings to the deities and they never allowed women in their groups. However things have changed now with the modern dancers primarily comprising of women. The dance follows the following two forms today

1 'Natyamelamu' consists of a group of actors (males) performing Kuchipudi dance drama.
2 'Nattuvamelam' is a tradition of dance performed by woman artistes. This tradition had two sections , those who performed at the royal courts and those who performed in the temples


Historically it was performed as a dance drama, with several dancers taking different roles. The themes are mostly derived form the scriptures and mythology, and the portrayal of certain characters is a central motif of this dance form. One example is Satyabhama, the colourful second consort of Lord Krishna. Another unique feature of Kuchipudi is the Tarangam, in which the performer dances on the edges of a brass plate, executing complicated rhythmic patterns with elan.


Kuchipudi Dance Institutions

There is a lot of excitment about this form of dance even among the younger generation despite all the modernity and distractions, thanks to the pioneering work being done by famous dancers like Raja & Radha Reddy, Swapnasundari, vempati chinna satyam, shobha naidu, manju bhargavi, pasumarthy venkatesa sarma, vyjayanthi kashi, shanta rati mishra, arunima kumar among others. With the right kind of promotions by interested people including pioneering websites like http://www.artindia.net/ http://www.kanakasabha.com/ the dance tradition has been kept alive in the academies and houses of these artists. We will begin listing some of the dance schools and dancers as we go along.

Kuchipudi Dance Academy Mumbai

The school is a pioneering Kuchipudi dance institute in Dombivili, Mumbai. It is a non-profit organization, established in the year 1981 by Smt Vijaya Prasad with an aim to popularise Kuchipudi in Maharashtra. The teaching is imparted in Guru Shishya Parampara style. Each student is personally trained under the able guidance of the guru herself.

The following is an excerpt from the Academy's website on what Kuchipudi is all about. See also the videolink provided at the site. It is one of the best sites on this dance form and the anxiety of the Dance guru Vijaya Prasad to propagate the art form is quite evident from the meticulous way the site has been constructed along with superb content, except that it has not been updated of late as one notices.

Codification of Kuchipudi
In the 15th century, a saint called Siddhendra Yogi who is believed to have been saved by the Lord Krishna from drowning, codified the movements and enriched the repertoire of the Kuchipudi dance form. Siddhendra Yogi previously known as siddhappa, championed the cause of redefining this dance form aiming at eliminating exploitation of women. Kuchipudi was enriched by the advent of the female dancers. Renowned gurus like Vedantam Lakshmi Narayana Sastry, Chinta Krishnamurthy and Tadepalli Perayya, broadened the horizons of the dance form. The reforms brought in has led to the women playing the male parts in this dance form.

The dance repertoire

The Kuchipudi dance begins with worship rituals. A dancer moves about sprinkling holy water, and then incense is burned. Indra-dhvaja (the flagstaff of the god Indra) is planted on the stage to guard the performance against outside interference. Women sing and dance with worship lamps, followed by the worship of Ganesha, the elephant god, who is traditionally petitioned for success before all enterprises. The bhagavatha (stage manager-singer) sings invocations to the goddesses Saraswati (Learning), Lakshmi (Wealth), and Parashakti (Parent Energy), in between chanting drum syllables.

Then each principal character introduces himself or herself on the stage with a daru. A daru is a small composition of dance and song specially designed for each character to help him or her reveal his or her identity and also to show the performer's skill in the art. There are nearly 80 darus or dance sequences in the dance drama. Behind a beautiful curtain held by two persons, Satyabhama enters the stage with her back to the audience and her braid hanging from the curtain.

In a style of its own

Kuchipudi has its own style which is very pleasant to watch and many of the songs are tuned to a special rhythm which is unique and enjoyable. The Kuchipudi dancers are experts in Sattwika Abhinaya, Bhava Abhinaya. The charm of Kuchipudi lies in its fast and intricate footwork, sinuous grace, and the use of the eyes to express moods and feelings. The technique of Kuchipudi closely follows the tenets laid down in the 'Natya Shastra '. There is some mingling of the folk idiom, which makes it highly appealing to a wide spectrum of viewers. The training takes about four to seven years, and includes two sets of adugulu or basic steps, the jatis or combination of movements, and a detailed study of the 'Natyashashtra' (theoretical aspects of dance). Copyright © Kuchipudi Dance Academy


Here are the video links from Kuchipudi Dance Academy Video

Kuchipudi is a living art form

The popular Indian information website http://www.webindia123.com/ has some interesting content in its website on Kuchipudi Some excerpts from the article.

Kuchipudi, a representation of a fine combination of Natya, Nritta and Nritya was earlier never a solo affair and required a number of actors. It was presented in the open air on an improvised stage by men and boys who were given a vigorous training in abhinaya, music, dancing and singing. Earlier the female roles were played by boys and young men of comely appearance. The Sutradhar or the director of the stage played the key role. He was the conductor, dancer, singer, musician, comedian, all rolled into one.
The play began with the orchestral music which included Mridanga, Madala and a pair of cymbals, followed by an invocation to a deity and appearance of Ganesha, the elephant headed god to bless the performance. Then came the dancers offering worship to the Flagstaff or Flag of Indra. The Sutradhara then announced the theme of the play, introduced the characters in his sing-song voice and appealed the audience to witness the show with attention. This marked the end of the prelude and the beginning of the play proper.
Each character entered the stage dancing and singing the merits of the character he or she was impersonating, which is known as 'Daruvus'. The play progressed at a leisurely pace and relaxed tempo punctuated with dances both abstract and expressional. It contained some very complicated items of original footwork such as tracing out an outline of a lion or an elephant with the feet on the floor or dancing with the feet on the edges of a circular brass tray or with a water pot delicately and precariously balanced on the head.

Today Kuchipudi is considerably a different style of dance form than it originally used to be. In most of the cases it is now a solo performance done by female dancers. The Sutradhara has become a phenomenon of the past and the Vachika abhinaya, that is, expressional numbers are sung by the danseuses herself instead by the vocalists in the background on the stage as was the traditional practice. The element of devotion to gods has also been done away with and it has become purely a secular affair with predominance of 'sringar' or erotic flavour. Besides the drama component has also been totally reduced. The main expressional number is from Jaideva's Ashtapadi, the Ramayana, the Puranas, Tirtha Narayana's Krishna Lila Tarangini or Tyagaraja's compositions, but now the dancer combines into herself the roles of the singer who sings the 'daruvu', the actor who speaks the lines and the dancer who mimes and dances to interpret the text. Elements not indigenous to the dance drama such as sculpture like stances and freezes based on perfect iconographic forms motifs and shapes have also been incorporated into Kuchipudi dance recitals to make it more competitive with other dance forms.

Vempati Chinna Satyam

Kuchipudi's greatest known Guru's of modern times, has been the leader of this art form in whose footsteps the long list of practising artists of the art have come today. Vempati Chinna Satyam himself has been the disciple of the legendry Vedantam Lakshmi Narayana Sastry and Tadepalli Perraya Sastry who worked hard to resurrect the dying artform to bring it to the centrestage. Vempati had set the pace for the exemplary work his own disciples did in the later years for propagating Kuchipudi as the modern dance form while keeping the time worn tradition intact. The Dance which is a fusion of folk art played in the streets with the fine artistry of dance drama performances of the stage gained a distinct status and appeal at the hands of Vempati. He took the dance from the obscure corner of Andhra Pradesh to the world stage by performing with his fellow artists around the world and spearheading the setting up of dance schools in the Western world. His style is known for its flawless technical brilliance, neat well defined crisp lines of the body combined with innovation, creativity and a unique sense of space and time which is very important for the art to communicate the barriers of language and culture.

Vempati also set the tradition of organising dedicated dance schools for Kuchipudi with his Kuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai which is the oldest dance school teaching Kuchipudi. He also set up Kuchipudi Kalashetra in Vishakapatnam. Vempati composed almost 180 solo pieces and 15 ballets most of which are being staged verbatim by his disciplines everywhere which included Padmavati Srinivasa Kalyanam, Vipranarayana Charitam, Menaka Viswamitra, Kalyana Sakuntalam, Bhama Kalapam, Chandalika, Padmavathi Sreenivasa Kalyanam, Rukmini Kalyanam, Hara Vilasam, Siva Dhanurbhangam and Ardha Nareeswaram, being the latest. In fact, much of the work in Kuchipudi could safely be said to have some sort of iterative link to Vempati's work spanning more than five decades.

An indepth interview with the legend is carried in the website http://www.chennaibest.com/ by Janaki subramaniam with Vempati gives rare insights into the mind and work of the legendary Kuchipudi guru

Swapnasundari, an unparalleled Kuchipudi dancer and author

There are but very few masters who are both good at teaching and also practising an art form. And there are but few who could transcend the next level of researching and publishing a truly major treatise on the subject of their interest. Swapnasundari,the rare Kuchipudi artist from India is all this and more.

In a career spanning over four decades which is still quite current with the artist still busy performing around the world, Swapnasundari has impacted on the dance form in much the same way as her legendary guru Vempati Chinna Satyam with her own style and repertoire.

Swapnasundari is one of these rare masters of their own art who practises Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam to perfection and also who is willing to spare her time and effort to research the subject thoroughly and also bring out publications for the posterity. She is bold in her approach to her dance and not wary of adapting modern styles in her choreography and at the same time she is a stickler for tradition having been trained by the greatest of Kuchipudi gurus Pasumarthi Seetharamaiah and Vempati Chinna Satyam. Her gurus in Bharata Natyam include KN Dakshinamurthy, Adyar K Lakshmanan and B Kalyana Sundaram. She received specialized training in abhinaya from the veteran performer and teacher, Kalanidhi Narayanan. Swapnasundari unearthed a treasure in traditional dance styles while she researched at the Andhra Pradesh temples which resulted in rejuvenation of Vilasini Natyam, an art form long forgotten by the mainsteam artists. She has been receiving guidance in this art from Maddula Lakshminarayana.

As the founder director of the Kuchipudi Dance Centre in New Delhi, she has trained a number of students and produced several ballets. The Delhi Government's Sahitya Kala Parishad Award is among the many honours that have been conferred on Swapnasundari for her contribution to the arts. A prolific writer, her new book The World of Koochipoodi Dance--notice the double "oo" as the dance form is supposed to be named according to her--has attracted rave reviews from the dance lovers. The World of Koochipoodi Dance (Shubhi Publications Rs. 3500) explores the efforts to revive the dance along with myths and legends popularly associated with it. The following is a brief extract from The Hindu Folio pages of Swapnasundari's article which gives an idea of the depth of research and the feeling the dancer has for Koochipoodi (as she puts it)

Reviving a lost tradition (From the pages of The Hindu december 05 1999)
Swapnasundari
In the history of Kuchipudi, it is the past hundred years or so which are significant, especially in terms of its development as a solo dance form, from its origins as an exclusively male, Bhagavata Mela tradition. Most popular in this derived form, Kuchipudi today is performed as much - if not more - by women as men. In the history of Andhra's dances, what preceded Kuchipudi was centuries of more than a dozen parallel dance traditions, Yakshaganas, folk theatre forms, and a street sampradaya, an exclusively-female dancing tradition in temples (more)

Prabir Datta the Kuchipudi icon of Delhi

Smt Swapnasundari's chief disciple sh. Prabir Datta is an experienced dance teacher who is propagating this art among the children of East Delhi and adjacent areas. Prabir Datta is one of the rather small number of male dancers whom he also believes are on the verge of extinction! "Unless more community platforms are made available and there is recognition that the male artists could perform as well as the female dancers, the bold experiments being done by the male in classical artform will only be history", Datta says,

Global Kuchipudi Exponents

Anuradha Nehru
There is an interesting dairy entry in Kalanidhi's webpages
about Anuradha Nehru being one of the most accomplished dancers practising Kuchipudi worldwide. One of the important discipiles of Vempati Chinnasatyam, Anuradha has been performing globally promoting Kuchipudi. Anuradha is the Artistic Director of Bethesda based Kuchipudi Kalanidhi and Kalanidhi Dance company in the US.
Kuchipudi Kalanidhi is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Kuchipudi, founded by Anuradha Nehru in 1992 in Maryland. Kuchipudi Kalanidhi’s mission is to raise the profile of Indian Classical dance in the United States by presenting professional and outstanding quality dance productions and training the next generation of Indian Classical dancers to the highest standards.

There is a thought provoking quote from Anuradha found in the fellow artist Amirta Lahiri's blog

"Studying, performing and teaching Kuchipudi gives me endless joy and it is my fervent wish to pass on this joy to my students and to my audiences.As a dancer, my epiphany was the moment I went beyond technique to discover the true joy of dance. I believe that excellence in dance means complete involvement and total abandon. Dance is the beginning of a new universe of expression, communicating new worlds that words or images alone cannot describe.As a teacher and choreographer, I believe that Indian dance provides a rich and strong medium of communication that conveys contemporary as well as traditional expressions. A solid foundation of rigorous training is fundamental. Only on its solid base can the creativity and growth of Indian classical dance flourish."

Amirta Lahiri herself makes an interesting departure from the conventional profile of an dancer being vivacious and quite expressive in her language from what one could make out of her blog entries made briefly for a few days recently. It is a pity that she has not continued her blog entries which are mostly about her Kalashetra days and her deep reverence of Rukminidevi Arundale the true icon of Kalashetra Chennai, the congregation of all artists, and Acca or akka (the elder sister in Tamil) for all dancers and a collossus of dance repertoire by her own right during her life time.

The web directory http://www.narthaki.com/ lists 41 exponents of Kuchipudi in the US alone which includes highly popular schools run by a host of Indian Gurus based in America. The list gives details of the Guru, the school address, the Guru's Guru and the website details along with the e-mail and phone links. An extremely useful source for those looking for collaborations and learning from the kuchipudi practitioners abroad.

The list includes Mythili Kumar of Abhinaya Dance company in San Jose, Radha Carman of Mandalam School in Los Angeles, Ramaa Bharadvaj of Angahara Academy of Performing Arts of California, Shoba Natarajan of Samskriti Foundation Illinois, Divya Yuleri of New Jersey, Niharika Pendakanti from the same city, Padma Chebrolu of Cincinnati and Satyavani Easwara among others.

Kuchipudi's exponents from home turf!

An exhaustive and useful list of exponents of this rare heritage art form has been provided in the site http://www.artindia.net/ You can follow this link to get to see the long list of the best artists of this tradition. Anyone who wants to add to this list can write to this blog! Here goes the link http://www.artindia.net/kuchipudi1.html .

Kalpalathika is one of well known disciple of Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam, Founder-Director of Kuchipudi Art Academy, Madras who in her nearly 18 years of dance career has been able contribute immensely to the promotion of Kuchipudi. The founder director of Soundaryalahiri School of Dance was the youngest Indian dancer to be invited by an American university as a visiting professor of dance when she served for two semesters at the Richmond University, Virginia in 1999.

Kuchipudi Education

Education in Kuchipudi is like most other art forms is done in both ways, formal and informal. While the dance schools and individual dance teachers conduct their classes from the basic to the very advanced stage, there are institutions and universities dedicated to teaching Kuchipudi. These formal learning platforms also give certificates for Degree and post graduate courses and also enable the students to pursue their Doctoral programmes in this art form. Anyone with an interest in the dance form need not compromise on their career advancement or possibilities of earning steady income by being employed in the Government, Television Channels like Doordarshan, in the Univerities iself where they studied as instructors etc.,

Even students not part of the formal stream could also avail off the various certifications and examinations being conducted from time to time by the government and other prescribed institutions to attain qualifications in Kuchipudi dance. Here is a sample of what qualifications are required to persue the post graduate course in

kuchipudi from Telegu University M.A. Kuchipudi Dance, 2 years, 4 semesters (Hyderabad Campus)& (Kuchipudi Campus)Should have a degree in Kuchipudi dance from a recognised university(or) any degree from a recognised university (a) with a diploma in Kuchipudi Dance from a government recognised institution, (b) B grade artiste from Doordarshan (c)Should belong to a traditional Kuchipudi organization like Kuchipudi or Surabhi with 5 years experience in performance, (d)possessing a certificate of 5 years experience in any renowned and government recognized Dance or Theatre organization. Intake : 20

KUCHIPUDI FAQs

Where can I find Kuchipudi dance music?

You can find kuchipudi dance music CDs and recordings in music stores, online music stores, websites. Check the following sites musicplusvideos.com. I found the section III of a series on kuhipudi songs posted by one Ramakrishna in the the Teleuguworld but I am not sure about the first two parts! check this.

Masters of Kuchipudi are well known what about the next Generation of Kuchipudi artists?

Here is an interesting link I found in the grand masters of Kuchipudi Raja Reddy Radha Reddy's site about their own offsprings