A Village called Kuchipudi

Freya and I headed off to the outskirts if this rather sleepy city of Vijayawada, with Sandeep, in order for him to give a lesson to the 2 students from his Hyderabad school, Harshid and Puja. They have a large balcony where there is room to dance – you can’t swing a cat in our hotel room. Guy and Caspar stayed behind to go to the internet cafe and hopefully take it easy. So Freya danced with the others and got in a bit more practise, before Sandeep went back to pick up the boys, as Harshid’s family insisted on feeding us lunch. They cook extremely well at their house, so it is also very hard to say no. We had a lovely lunch with an excellent prawn curry – we are getting a bit sick of idly and dhosa, so we really enjoyed it. Sandeep also bought a beautiful moist butterscotch cake for us all.

We then set out in 2 cars, with Harshid’s family guiding us along a shortcut, which would take us to a village called Kuchipudi! We had in the front seat of our car a great legend of Kuchipudi, Vedantam Radheshyam, who had now nearly finished teaching Freya the entrance scene from Bhama Kalapam. He said lets finish the piece in kuchipudi village. We were playing him dance music as we drove, and he was tapping along to it vigorously. It was great to get out of the city. We were travelling along a very narrow road which was raised substantially off the surrounding fields. The scenery was very beautiful here. In the distance on our left we could see the Krishna River, which runs across India from West to east, and on the other side of our road was a canal, to supply water to the fields.

There were coconut palms everywhere, as well as plantations of lush banana palms and sugar cane. This was exactly what I had imagined South India to look like. We were travelling towards the coast following the main river itself through its delta. The roads were so narrow in places, and only 25% tarred in some stretches, and it felt pretty hairy sitting right on the side of the small car, buy Sandeep is a very good driver. Occasionally we came to complete halts waiting for huge herds of goats to pass.

It is a journey of about 50km to Kuchipudi, but with this route we expected that it would take some time indeed. Our guide in the other car was feeling increasingly bad that he had taken us on this long winded route, but we told him we were really thankful to have caught a glimpse of this really rural Indian setting. As we neared our destination we passed through a very ancient town, which was once a major capital of a king of Andhra, and there is a famous Krishna temple in this town…This while area is in fact steeped in the mythology (if i can call it that) of Shri Krishna, the flute playing god who loves song and dance. So as Radheshyam explained to us, it is no accident that dance developed to intensely in this district known as the Krishna District. His own name actually refers to Radha (Shri Krishna’s wife) and Shyam is one of many names for Krishna. Apparently everyone has Krishna names here.

So at around 4.30pm we finally arrived in the actual town of Kuchipudi. Freya did not realise that were were actually there, as this place looked much like any small town in India. Sandeep said “when I get the money, I want to build a memorial arch here to mark the art of dance”, and as he looked up from where we had parked, Radheshyam pointed out an arch being built by one of the great legends of Kuchipudi Vempatti Chinna Sathyam. Vempatti is no doubt the most famous of all the dance families of kuchipudi, and is the only one of these dance families who has really taken the art form to western audiences. He set up a dance academy in Chennai, which churns out many kuchipudi dancers, both Indian and from many overseas countries. He has choreographed many dance dramas in his lifetime. He is old now, and his sons have virtually taken over the running of the academy. It would of course seem a great attraction for Freya to go there, but we have heard of young ladies going there to learn, who have found the whole experience in Chennai very trying. We really wanted to explore the true place of origin of the artform. Radheshyam told us he is one of five brothers who were all Kuchipudi dancers. His eldest brother was actually a much greater dancer than Vempatti, and was heading for great fame, when he tragically died in a car accident at the age of 26. How tragic indeed. Vempatti’s crew from Chennai are actually taking charge of the organising of the up-coming festival of Kuchipudi dance at the end of March. It was here that we realized that there is a lot of politics going on between all these families, and a lot of them, although they are blood related, don’t see eye to eye at all.

We stopped for a delicious dhosa-like snack at a tiny eating house in the main street. This place had many memories for Sandeep, as this is where his father used to drop him off to leave him with his dance master Radheshyam. In those days there was no hostel for the dance students to stay in, so Sandeep just hung out with his guru, helping him with all sorts of work, and then getting lessons whenever it pleased the teacher. He is very thankful for this now, as it is much harder to get really close to the teachers these days. After drinking a really strong cup of chai, we headed through the archway building site, to the street that houses the homes of all the great legends, as well as the Kuchipudi dance university. The village atmosphere was complete here, with its dirt roads, a village pond and a temple. This temple is where Sandeep danced for his graduation, a temple of Shiva with many of his dance poses on the walls. This is where, over the many years, the dance festivals take place on the simple stage in a dusty square. We dropped Radheshyam off at his home and went a couple of houses further along the track to the home of his uncle, the world renowned Guru of female impersonation Padmasri Vedantam Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma.

He was sitting on his verandah in the beautiful golden late afternoon light. He is Sandeep’s final guru, who spotted him dancing in Kuchipudi, and actually asked him to come and learn from him, which is pretty unheard of. So thanks to this amazing rapport Sandeep has with him, he had agree to meet Freya. He is in his late seventies and cannot really teach anymore. Sandeep was hoping he might teach Freya a little in his famous art of expression, but as he said he gets exhausted very quickly. Vedantam Satyanarayana as he is commonly referred to, stated not long ago that you have everything you need in a teacher in Sandeep, and you really don’t need anybody else, which is an incredible compliment to Sandeep, coming from one of the very greatest! And this does echo our feelings very much – it is really clear to see that Sandeep has soaked up this pure tradition in its undiluted form.

Freya & Sandeep offering gifts to Padmasri Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma

So as specially invited guests, we were seated with him on the verandah, and Freya handed him a box of sweets and a dhoti, the traditional Brahmin wraparound skirt, which is a respectful gift for assist. He showed us his photo albums, of some of his many performances, and he ordered a most handsome young man to get us soft drinks. This young man had a stunning face and physique, and it was pretty clear that he was a dancer. You could just imagine him in female get-up. He was very humble and gracious and spoke English, but the guru himself did not. He chatted with Sandeep for a while, and said to him in Telugu that Caspar has a beautiful face, and would make a great Kuchipudi dancer. We laughed, because this was exactly what Radheshyam has also said – that Caspar was more beautiful than Freya and would make a great dancer. Thankfully Freya missed this part of the conversation!

Vedantam Sathyam then took us on a personal guided tour of the village. First stop was the newly built Siddhendra Yogi temple. Siddhendra Yogi was the man, who in the 13th century wrote down the Natya Shastras, which means the treaties on the dance form, the formalized sacred texts on Kuchipudi. Before he wrote them down, the dances were purely an oral tradition. The temple housed his statue, but most interesting was a 13th century statue of Lord Krishna on one side of the room, which was the very stone statue that Siddhendra Yogi had meditated on and prayed to while he wrote the treaties. It seemed to us most special. A small monkey entered the temple and seemed to take interest in Freya and was going after her – Vedantam Satyanarayana worked hard to chase it away.

We wandered on to his personal dance hall, which was inaugurated in 1996, but had been there since the 18th century. Inside all the walls were completely covered in amazing photos, mementoes, and huge awards. Every award any India artist could ever dream of, was on those walls, including many from past presidents of India, including Padmasri, one of the highest achievable recognition. Vedantam sat in his chair with Sandeep next to him, and asked for Freya to dance. We quickly whipped out the iPod and speakers, which have been so fantastic on this trip. Soon she was in full swing, and obviously giving it her very best. This man must have seen only the top dancers over his long career, so it was indeed an honour for Freya to get this time with him. He started playing the Nattuvangam, the flat discs with which the dance masters support the rhythm for the performer. It was indeed very special to have the accompaniment of this great living legend, and it something we will always treasure. Freya danced for around 20 minutes, and worked very hard. The grand master of course did not say anything, but the young beautiful student of his was shocked, expecting a Foreigner to deliver a mediocre effort. He was amazed that she could actually dance proper Kuchipudi and offered his best wishes to Freya. Padmasri Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma then gave Sandeep a pat on the back, saying to him that the Neelamegha item was really good, and in this way complimenting Sandeep on his teaching efforts! This does not happen very often.

He then took us to the Kuchipudi University, which again is just around the corner. It is a large two story building with large classrooms, and cool marble floors. In classroom number 2 there was large photos of all the dance legends all around the walls, and Vedantam Satyanarayana show us all of them. Noticeably a photo of Radheshyam was missing…We have to ask Sandeep why that is. There were huge life size photos of Vedantam Satyanarayana on the podium, and Vedantam the showman he is, posed next to them for photos.

We then returned to his house, but Freya stopped off at Radheshyam’s house to take her dance lesson, and learn the last stanza of her item. He had waved her down from his balcony, and as he and his uncle don’t talk, Freya discreetly slipped away to his small dance hall with a cracking concrete floor. We bade our farewells to Vedantam Satyanarayana, who looked tired after the guided tour. It was dark now, and we followed the sound of dance to Radheshyam’s dance hall.

Inside a group of about 8 young children were dancing in the tiny space. Together with a very talented young girl, Freya danced the last of her piece. This young girl then proceeded to dance a piece on the goddess Parvati. She was just amazing; she was the same height and size as Freya, but as is always the case, Freya with her western size looks older than her years. The Indian kids are generally so much smaller. This young girl had so much animation and expression, and it was clear she was a big talent. From what I could gather Radhesyam was teaching these kids for free, and has choreographed a whole dance drama for them. At this point the power went off. It was pitch black. The kids fetched some candles and the young girl completed her most excellent performance in this dim but soft light. Sandeep wanted to give her some encouragement in the form of money, but realized that he had taken his wallet out of his pocket. He then reached into his back pocket hoping to find anything, and amazingly he found a 500 rupee note there…this was a lot of money for this village girl, and she initially said no. But Sandeep said to her that she had no bangles on her arms and that she need to bangles for dance. She came around and touched all our feet seeking our blessings. It was really magic – like being transported to the old times in the village, where there was no politics, but just simplicity and a great passion for dance. I was very grateful for this truly humble grand finale to a most amazing day.

We “did our business” in true Indian style on the side of the road at Kuchipudi village (our final good-bye) in the dark, boys one side girls the other, before we headed back home along the much faster main road.