Kuchipudi

Understand

Where Kuchipudi comes from

Kuchipudi is one of the eight classical dances of India, originating in the village of Kuchipudi in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. The dance takes its name from the village and has its roots in the ancient Sanskrit drama tradition documented in the Natya Shastra. The modern form of the dance was codified by the Brahmin scholar Sidhendra Yogi (around 1450-1500 AD) who composed the Kuchipudi-style dance-drama form called Shama Shabdam. The dance was traditionally performed by a community of Brahmin men (the Bhagavathulu of Kuchipudi) as a religious offering to the temples of Krishna and the surrounding Andhra region. With the 20th century the dance moved from male-only temple performance to mixed-gender stage presentation, championed by dancers including Lakshmi Narasamma, Sobha Naidu and Yamini Krishnamurthy. Today the dance has its headquarters at the Kuchipudi Art Academy (founded in 1963) and at the Natana Tarangini of Padmasri Sobha Naidu. The Government of India recognised Kuchipudi as a classical dance in 1952.

How it's practiced

Kuchipudi is performed by soloists (and increasingly by duets and groups), distinguished by its fast footwork, the vividabhinaya (story-telling gestures) and the dramatic characterisations. The dance features the famous tarangam — the dancer balances a brass plate on her head and slowly lowers it with her feet, while dancing on the lip of the plate in time to the song and the rhythm of the drummer. The principal repertoire includes the invocation (alaripu), the pure dance (jatiswaram), the central varnam, the abhinaya and the meditative shloka. Costume is the stitched regional sari in white with a coloured border, ornamented with the gold waist-belt and the brahmin-style bun of the hair ornamented with flowers. The accompanying music is the mridangam, the cymbals, the veena, the flute and the tambura. Costume-dress mirrors the classical temple-brahmin tradition of Andhra.