The
dance style known as Kuchipudi is many things. It is the name of a
village. It also refers to the tradition of centuries past dance drama
called Kuchipudi Bhagawatmela nurtured by the male Brahmin dancers of
Andhra Pradesh. It is also the name of recently emerged solo dance form
called Kuchipudi. This is the tradition in which Sidhendra Yogi, a
Telugu poet (of the 17th century,) composed the dance drama Bhama
Kalapam a central, beautiful item in Kuchipudi dance repertoire. In the
1920 pioneer dancers visionaries of Kuchipudi village like the late
laxmi Narain Vedantam, Prahlad Vedantam, Sarma Jagannath, Satyanarain
Vedanam, Vempati Chinna Satyam enriched and guided its recent evolution.
In this remerged solo dance form it ino longer belongs to the male
Brahmin guild and is available to men and women everywhere. At its core,
however, Kuchipudi retains its dramatic origins.
Unlike
any dance tradition in the world today, the genres of Indian classical
dance including Kuchipudi, are seen as pathways to intellectual,
physical and spiritual freedom. Dance is not merely performance
etiquette nor even schooling of the body, but rather is a vehicle of
comprehensive spiritual understanding alongside parallel streams of yoga
and monastic practices. Here asceticism is celebrated by using "hasta
mudras" hand gestures, harmonious shapes, blissful song and mystic
poetry to plunge into the realm of spirit and overcome ignorance or
'avidya.' Every aspect of the classical tradition is engineered to
access the soul: the cyclic rhythm which suggests infinitude of self,
ragas of emotion in music, and yearning phrases of mystic poetry. The
dancer in training becomes a master of mind as well as body and embarks
on a process so profound that it has consequences not only of the self
but of those that observe the art as audience members. Whether dancer or
perceiver of the dance, the potential power of the art of Kuchipudi
when released is remarkable.
