Kuchipudi dance form cries for attention

Kuchipudi ancient classical dance form, one of the leading Indian classical dance forms originated in Kuchipudi village of Krishna district having history of one thousand years attracts classical dance lovers across the country with the efforts of some families which dedicated their life for the survival of ancient dance form.

In this tiny village of Kuchipudi nearly sixty kilometres from Vijayawada, 80 families with surnames of Bhagavatula, Vedantam, Chinta, Vempati, Pasumarthi and others still striving hard to keep alive the ancient dance form alive by staying back in the village.

In earlier stages the Kuchipudi dance is limited and accessible to only Brahmin community. Later Vedantam Parvateesam set up Lalita Kala Kshetram and provided entry into the dance form to people of all castes. To prevent caste discrimination he put a dress code of Khaki Nicker, White banian and white cap to prevent identification of the caste of a student.

The ancient dance form got fame across the country when Pingali Venkaiah, the designer of national flag brought Mahatma Gandhi to the village in 1942. Mahatma Gandhi praised the Kuchipudi dance ballet. Later with the efforts of Banda kanakalingeswara Rao the then AIR station director, Devulapalli Krishna Sastry who penned Ksheera Sagara Madhanam dance form, Balantrapu Rajanikanta Rao, Chinta Krishna Murthy, Vempati China Satyam and others a building was constructed in the name of Venkateswara Bhavan for which TTD extended an assistance of Rs 2 lakh. Later it was transformed as Siddendra Yogi Kalakshetram and affiliated to Telugu University in 1989. Vedantam Parvateesam served as principal for the kalapeetam till 1971 followed by PVG Krishna Sarma till 1989. He penned parvati Kalyanam and enacted by students. Later Chinta Ramanatham served as principal. Vedantam Ramalingeswara Sastry continuing as principal of kalakshetram from 2005 and striving hard for the survival of the ancient dance form.

Ramalinga Sastry penned 113 dance ballets and enacted some of them in his five decades of service to the dance form. He provided chapter divisions as per Yuga for the 1000 year old Kuchipudi classical dance history. Also segregated Kuchipudi Kriyas and documented their significance and utilisation. Vedantam Ramainga Sastry provided significant literature on daruvus and created 4 daruvus in the dance form.

Ramalinga Sastry is going to be honoured by state government with YSR excellence award on August 15.

Several veteran dancers including Vedantam Radhesyam (Satyabhama fame) Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma, Vedantam Venata Durga Bhavani, Yeleswarapu Srinivas, Chinta Balakrishna, Vedantam Vagdevi Prasad and others stayed back in the village to promote the ancient dance form.

Vedantam Radhesyam, AP Hamsa award winner,Kendra Sahitya Nataka Academy award winner, who served in Siddendra Yogi Kuchipudi kalakshetram for nearly three decades and retired still teaching the ancient dance form to students at his residence to keep alive the ancient dance form.

The veteran Kuchipudi dance experts who are striving hard to keep alive the ancient cultural dance form alive appeal the government to provide employment opportunities to students who secure diplomas and degrees in Kuchipudi dance by introducing the dance classes in high schools across the state to protect the rich culture and ancient dance form.