KUCHIPUDI DANCE

Kuchipudi is a dance form given to the Indian dance platform by a small village in the Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is not merely a dance form but is combination of dance, gestures, speech and song. A Kuchipudi dancer has to be well versed in dancing, acting, music, various languages and texts. Kuchipudi was born in a small village of Andhra Pradesh. There it developed as a tradition by the same name where it was born. Kuchipudi although now recognized as an independent dance form is related to Bharat Natyam. It was in the 17th century during the bhakti movement in South India that Siddendra Yogi the formulator of the dance form selected some boys from the village to perform dance drama. Thus came the Kuchipudi in this world. In those days Kuchipudi was performed once in a year and the dance form was cautiously kept out of the reach of Devadasis. From the first performers the technique and skills of this form got handed over the generations to acquire the present form. Some of the legendary performers and gurus were Kuchipudi Brahmins like Lakshmi Narayan Shastri and Chinta Krishna Murti who excelled in roles like Satyabhama in Bhamakalapam; later gurus include Vedantam Chinna Satyam.