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Evolution of Kuchipudi
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The three-day Kuchipudi fest kick off today at Kuchipudi village
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Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar.
Dance evolution The Sri Sidhendra Kala Peetham in Kuchipudi village
Potti Sreeramulu Telugu
University is holding
`Kuchipudi Nrutyotsavalu'
at the heart of Kuchipudi
village in Krishna
District for three days commencing
today. The University
initially introduced two
awards, last year, named after
Siddhendra Yogi, to Vedantam
Satyanarayana Sarma, as
a performer and to Vempati
Chinna Satyam as guru.
These honours carried a cash
award of Rs.50,000 each. But
owing to financial constraints
only one award for a Kuchipudi
dance artiste is announced
this year and
veteran dancer Yamini Krishna
Murthy was chosen for
this.
The festival is also designed
to expose the Kuchipudi
artistes to other dance
styles too. The festival is to be
inaugurated by the Chairman
of the Legislative council, A.
Chakrapani and will be attended
by some known personalities
in political and art
fields. Artistes Prabha (Kuchipudi)
of Chennai (a film
artiste too) , Dr. Iliana of
Orissa (Odissi), K.V. Satyanarayana
of Eluru (Amuktamalyada
ballet),
Madhavapeddi Murthy (Kuchipudi)
of Chennai, Vedantam
Ramalinga Sastry
(Krikrishna Vijayam ballet)
of Kuchipudi village, Vedantham
Radheshyam (Bhakta
Prahlada), Laitha Sindhuri
(Kuchipudi), A.Uma Dogra
(Kathak) of Mumbai, Vyjayanthi
Kasi (Kuchipudi) of
Bangalore, Bala Kondala Rao
(Kalyana Raghavam ballet) of
Visakhapatnam, Bhagavatula
Sethuram (Kuchipudi) of
Hyderabad will be featured in
this festival. There will be two
seminars on December 29
and 30. Dance performances
will be held in the evenings.
Kuchipudi artistes and
connoisseurs of the ancient
dance styles are concerned
about the future of the art.
The concern is about retaining
its identity. The dance
looks today more a well defined
execution with rich cos-
tumes, but the conservative
and traditional look of the art
with its original flavour
seems to have been lost. Vempati
Chinna Satyam, largely
responsible for the spread of
Kuchipudi blamed the gurus
for the dilution. It is well
known that the art flourished
in the village for generations,
as each family of the village
was contributing at least one
boy to learn the art. But now
the present generation is opting
for other vocations. Now,
the state government constructed
a building spending a
couple of crores put up hostels
and `natyasalas'. But the
teaching staff about a half a
dozen members are on consolidated
salaries also of
meagre amounts. Another
setback is that no one is concentrating
on teaching Nattuvangam,
an essential feature
to conduct the dance according
to the original grammar.
The Telugu University which
is now looking after these
subjects has to look into these
factors and set things right.
Hope the ensuing festival
would take these things into
consideration and would
strive to bring back the original
style of the Kuchipudi
dance art.
G.S.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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