Kuchipudi is a Classical Indian dance form from Andhra Pradesh, a state of South India. Kuchipudi is the name of a small village in the Divi Taluq of Krishna district that borders the Bay of Bengal and with resident Brahmins practising this traditional dance form, it acquired the present name.With the dance form attaining perfection by the time of Golconda king Abdul Hassan Tanesha, Kuchipudi brahmins are said to have received 600 acres (2.4 km²) of land as an endowment from Tanesha for the great presentation before him.Siddhendra Yogi is said to be the first scholar to give it the current form of dance drama. Bhamakalapam is one of his celebrated compositions. He also reserved the art to males by teaching it to young brahmin boys of the village. However, in modern times, the art has been dominated by women.
In 1678 when Nawab of Golkunda, Abul Hassan happened to be there, enjoyed and liked the kuchipudi performance very much. He was so impressed and delighted by the presentation of the dance drama
that he gifted away the village to the performing troupe. Since then it came to be known as 'Kuchipudi'.From this village, Kuchipudi spread to neighbouring districts and now to towns and cities of various countries. In ancient times, it was 'Devadasi' or 'maid servants of god' who used to perform these dance drama in the temples and shrines before the deities. As devadasis disintegrated and deteriorated, Kuchipudi also started losing its identity but a number of 'Brahman' experts of the arts collected at 'Kuchipudi Village' and settled down there with a determination to preserve the dance-drama and its pristine purity and grandeur.Kuchipudi is generated by 'Bhakti Cult' and has imbibed elements from both bharatanatyam and folk form such as Yakshagan. Kuchipudi is also famous for some very complicated items of original foot work such as tracing out an outline of a lion or an elephant without keeping the full 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.
The performance usually begins with some stage rites, after which each of the character comes on to the stage and introduces him/herself with a daru (a small composition of both song and dance) to introduce the identity, set the mood, of the character in the drama. The drama then begins. The dance is accompanied by song which is typically Carnatic music. The singer is accompanied by mridangam (a classical South Indian percussion instrument), violin, flute and the tambura (a drone instrument with strings which are plucked). Ornaments worn by the artists are generally made of a light weight wood called Boorugu.
Some of the well known people in this tradition are Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam,Guru Jayarama Rao and Vanashree Rao Vedantam Lakshminarayana, Dr. Uma Rama Rao, Tadepalli Perayya, Chinta Krish
na Murthy, Vedantam Sathya Narayana Sarma, Sobha Naidu, Pasumarthi Venu Gopala Krishna Sarma, Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy and Sarala Kumari Ghanta.The prominence of Kuchipudi dance form is not limited to India alone. There are now a number of popular Kuchipudi teachers, choreographers and dancers in North America and Australia. Some of them include Nilimma Devi , Sasikala Penumarthi and Revathi Komanduri in Atlanta, Kamala Reddy in Pittsburgh, Ratna Papa in Texas, Jyothi Lakkaraju , Vaidehi Yellai, Himabindu Challa, and Madhuri Kishore in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sandhya Sree Atmakuri in Detroit, Divya Yeluri, Chandrika Ramprasad Yamijala in New York/New Jersey, Mallika Ramaprasad, Mrinalini Sadananda, Lakshmi Babu, Anuradha Nehru and in Sydney, Australia Vimala Sarma
Beyond the stylistic differences of Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam steps, there are certain types of dances that are unique to Kuchipudi. Specifically there is the Tarangam of Kuchipudi which is unique in that the dancer must dance upon a brass plate, placing the feet upon the raised edges. The dancer moves the plate with much balance as the indiviudal is traditionally dancing on the plate with two diyas (small oil-burning candles) in his or her hands while balncing a "kundi" (small vessel) containing water on their head. At the end of the dance, typically, the dancer extinguishes the candles and washes his or her hands with the water from the vessel.There are also subtle differences in the costumes of both types of dances. Generally, Bharatanatyam dresses have three fans of differing heights that form the illusion of the spreading pleats of a sari. However, in Kuchipudi there is typically only one fan which tends to be longer than the longest of the three fans present on Bharatanatyam dresses.
In 1678 when Nawab of Golkunda, Abul Hassan happened to be there, enjoyed and liked the kuchipudi performance very much. He was so impressed and delighted by the presentation of the dance drama
that he gifted away the village to the performing troupe. Since then it came to be known as 'Kuchipudi'.From this village, Kuchipudi spread to neighbouring districts and now to towns and cities of various countries. In ancient times, it was 'Devadasi' or 'maid servants of god' who used to perform these dance drama in the temples and shrines before the deities. As devadasis disintegrated and deteriorated, Kuchipudi also started losing its identity but a number of 'Brahman' experts of the arts collected at 'Kuchipudi Village' and settled down there with a determination to preserve the dance-drama and its pristine purity and grandeur.Kuchipudi is generated by 'Bhakti Cult' and has imbibed elements from both bharatanatyam and folk form such as Yakshagan. Kuchipudi is also famous for some very complicated items of original foot work such as tracing out an outline of a lion or an elephant without keeping the full 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.The performance usually begins with some stage rites, after which each of the character comes on to the stage and introduces him/herself with a daru (a small composition of both song and dance) to introduce the identity, set the mood, of the character in the drama. The drama then begins. The dance is accompanied by song which is typically Carnatic music. The singer is accompanied by mridangam (a classical South Indian percussion instrument), violin, flute and the tambura (a drone instrument with strings which are plucked). Ornaments worn by the artists are generally made of a light weight wood called Boorugu.
Some of the well known people in this tradition are Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam,Guru Jayarama Rao and Vanashree Rao Vedantam Lakshminarayana, Dr. Uma Rama Rao, Tadepalli Perayya, Chinta Krish
na Murthy, Vedantam Sathya Narayana Sarma, Sobha Naidu, Pasumarthi Venu Gopala Krishna Sarma, Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy and Sarala Kumari Ghanta.The prominence of Kuchipudi dance form is not limited to India alone. There are now a number of popular Kuchipudi teachers, choreographers and dancers in North America and Australia. Some of them include Nilimma Devi , Sasikala Penumarthi and Revathi Komanduri in Atlanta, Kamala Reddy in Pittsburgh, Ratna Papa in Texas, Jyothi Lakkaraju , Vaidehi Yellai, Himabindu Challa, and Madhuri Kishore in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sandhya Sree Atmakuri in Detroit, Divya Yeluri, Chandrika Ramprasad Yamijala in New York/New Jersey, Mallika Ramaprasad, Mrinalini Sadananda, Lakshmi Babu, Anuradha Nehru and in Sydney, Australia Vimala SarmaBeyond the stylistic differences of Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam steps, there are certain types of dances that are unique to Kuchipudi. Specifically there is the Tarangam of Kuchipudi which is unique in that the dancer must dance upon a brass plate, placing the feet upon the raised edges. The dancer moves the plate with much balance as the indiviudal is traditionally dancing on the plate with two diyas (small oil-burning candles) in his or her hands while balncing a "kundi" (small vessel) containing water on their head. At the end of the dance, typically, the dancer extinguishes the candles and washes his or her hands with the water from the vessel.There are also subtle differences in the costumes of both types of dances. Generally, Bharatanatyam dresses have three fans of differing heights that form the illusion of the spreading pleats of a sari. However, in Kuchipudi there is typically only one fan which tends to be longer than the longest of the three fans present on Bharatanatyam dresses.
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