Pilgrimage to the Origins of Dance

After Sandeep came back from school at the start of the one week Sankranthi break, we spent Saturday night at Hyderabad Central, a huge shopping mall with trendsetting overseas brands, a great supermarket, but best of all a department stores worth of stunning Indian clothing with all its colour and intricate detail. It was difficult to get Freya and I out of there. Sandeep and Freya ate at Pizza Hut, while Caspar, Guy and I opted for a noodle bar with fairly authentic Chinese and Thai dishes. We finished up with Baskin Robbins ice cream, and Australian Cookie Man cookies. As usual we were completely stuffed when we got back home. Sandeep had 2 devoted dance students waiting for him when he returned, and so he gave them a lesson long into the night, while we all went to bed, in order to get up at 5am to start our car journey for Vijayawada.

Vijayawada lies on the east coast of India, 270 km due East of Hyderabad, on the Krishna river, 50km from Kuchipudi village, and is home to one of Sandeep’s great teachers Vedantam Radheshyam. Radheshyam is from an ancient lineage of Kuchipudi dancers, and at 52 he and his family are all among the greatest living proponents of the legendary dance drama know as Bhamakalapam. Much more about that later.

So as we headed out of the city on a cool and very foggy winter morning, it felt like a real pilgrimage had started. We stopped to buy some beautiful naturally chilled grapes temptingly piled up huge in the street vendors stall, and Sandeep was taking delight in the very cool air, which is such a rarity in the South. The sun was like a soft pinkish dish through the fog and haze, and looked very beautiful. After around 100km we were famished, and Sandeep was on the lookout for a decent road house, where we could safely eat breakfast. He found us the best one (as usual), and we ate Idlis and Dhosas, typical South India breakfast food, and here the dhosas were deliciously crisp. After Guy and I had 2 cups of chai each, we were finally fully awake.

It took us about 5 hours to reach Vijayawada. Guy drove the last 80 kilometres, while Sandeep took a much needed nap. The road became more passable towards the end, where the highway went from 2 potholed lanes to four well surfaced lanes. Approaching the city we saw an absolutely enormous statue of Shri Hanuman, the monkey god, standing I would guess at least 25 metres tall. The city has a temple of Shri Durga (the goddess riding the lion who destroys all negativity), on the top of a prominent hill, and is a popular tourist/pilgrim site. The Krishna river is incredibly wide here, and this river stretches all the way across India from the West coast. Seems like there is much to see and do here, but first on the agenda is always dance.

Sandeep took us straight to his dance teachers house – he has since he started teaching Freya dreamt that she would one day learn from the greats of Kuchipudi village itself. So there we were at the door to the small 3 roomed house belonging to one of the great legends of the dance form, Vedantam Radheshyam. All the Vedantam families stem from Kuchipudi village itself, and his wife is also from a lineage of dancers. He is a professor at the university in Kuchipudi, where he lectures during the week, and then comes to the city on week-ends, where his sons, brilliant dancers as well, are taking their higher education. It was beautiful to see the respect and love Sandeep has for his teacher. And it was immediately clear on Radheshyam’s face that he was an artist. I recognized him from the pages of our book on dance at home. At 52 he had a refined, intelligent, and quite youthful bright look about him. We were invited to sit on a mat and have water and tea, while Sandeep and Radheshyam talked in Telugu, the language of this state, which is in its purest form here. Not many speak English. They arranged for us to come the same evening for Freya’s first lesson.

We went back a short way to town, and checked out the main hotel, which was fairly expensive really for what it was. The staff also did not seem too friendly, and Guy and Sandeep soon found a newly built hotel with fresh and clean rooms, and although small had everything we required, for 1/3 of the price of them other one. It was late afternoon by the time we finally had got settled and found a place to eat (lunch menus had practically finished by them), and we had the most wonderful fried noodles with crispy veges without too many sauces and flavors added – it was heavenly in its simplicity. By 6pm we headed to the dance teachers house, and he greeted us very kindly and started Freya’s lesson. He had himself nominated for her to learn a piece from Bhamakalapam – probably the most renowned Kuchipudi solo piece. Freya had seen the dance before, and is luckily familiar with the music. Satyabhama is the consort of Lord Krishna, and the piece is about her pride in having a divine and most handsome husband. She is kind of demonstrative and showy, as well as overjoyed and very proud. So for Freya it will take some time to develop the feelings in this dance. Of course at her age it is not expected that she will fully explore these emotions, but hopefully show some of them.

Vedantam Radheshyam due to his age, normally only lectures and demonstrates hand movements and facial expressions these days, but for Freya, I guess largely due to his lack of English, as well as a lot of luck from our side, he demonstrated every step to her. His face was in a constant state of joy and smiles as soon as he started the steps, because this is the emotion of the dancer in this piece. It was so catchy, and really quite incredible to watch him. At the end of the lesson he just could not stop himself from dancing the fast rhythmic section which is very dynamic and intricate, called as jati. It was just fantastic. We felt very privileged indeed.

Freya did alright, but was of course unfamiliar with her new teacher. She tried her very best to take it all in, and learnt the first section of the piece, before we bade our farewells. As we left a phone call came to Sandeep. It was the family of one of his students from the school at Hyderabad. They had travelled to Vijayawada, essentially to be near Sandeep so that he can coach their son and daughter in some dance pieces for our next trip to Cuttck in 4 days time. So Sandeep will now be extra busy giving them 2 lessons a day, on top of the 2 lessons he takes Freya to. He will never cease to be a very popular and busy man. The family of his students very kindly invited us for dinner at their family’s home, and we had a lovely home cooked, non-veg meal. By this stage Guy had developed a roaring sore throat, and really just needed to get to bed. But as with all things in India they take time, and you can never make just a quick visit!

The next morning after our being slaughtered by mosquitoes, Sandeep again went off to teach his other 2 students, while we worked hard getting the kids out of bed. When he came back, we headed again to his teachers house, where Freya had her second lesson. She was much more relaxed, and Radheshyam himself seemed to be again enjoying teaching. On the last day of our stay here, we will drive to Kuchipudhi village to meet Radheshyam’s uncle, the legendary dancer Vedantam Santyanarayana Sharma. He is most known for his incredible portrayals of females, his most famous roles being from Bhamakalapam. Sandeep says his facial expressions are something to be experienced. Many authorities on Kuchipudi dance say the same. Hopefully Freya will get to spend a little time learning from him – if she is really lucky.

Kuchipudi village itself is really just a sleepy hamlet, and many people don’t even know that the dance art stems from this place. So we are not expecting to be transported to some heavenly world of dance. Of course all the homes of the legendary dancers are there including Radheshyam’s, but it will be interesting to see what else, if anything, we will find there. In this area where our hotel is located, there are around 30 cinemas showing purely Telugu movies, so my theory is that perhaps the tradition of the early dance dramas have rubbed off onto the general population in this way – in their love for movies. It is certainly all very interesting.