Sandeep’s Early Dance Career

In order for Sandeep to pursue his great passion for dance, without his parents having either money nor influence, Sandeep left his hometown of Nizamabad, to live with a dance teacher at the age of 11. This was arranged in the ancient tradition of Guru Sheysha Paramapara – the teacher/student relationship, where the student serves the teacher, does everything for him/her in return for the guru’s knowledge. So Sandeep stayed in this teachers house being treated really as a servant to this lady, washing clothes, fetching vegetables from the market, cleaning the house, staying at home if she asked, going out if she asked, doing her beck and call. In return for this, Sandeep had in 3 months learnt 3 dance steps – yes that is 3! By this time he was so sick and his stomach was so bad that he would constantly vomit. He was really ill, but his desire to learn drove him on, and he would never telephone his father to complain. So it happened by chance that his father decided to pay him a visit, as he was in town. He was completely shocked when he found Sandeep. He took Sandeep to a hospital which was located on the ground floor of the building he stayed in with this lady. They said to him that his illness was so bad that they could not treat him, and recommended he be taken to a major hospital. One of this teacher’s senior students finally helped him get admission to a good hospital, as this would have otherwise been impossible to afford. After this his father decided to take him home to recover. It took Sandeep 45 days to get well after the time spent in that dance teachers house. But Sandeep’s desire to learn dance still overrode these experiences, and he wanted to return to that teacher. His father pleaded with him not to, and in the end Sandeep very reluctantly gave up returning.

So Sandeep was still desperately seeking a good guru who could teach him well, and in the pure tradition. It so happened that Sandeep then got to meet with a very great dance Guru Sri Nataraja Ramakrishna, who is highly honored by the government of Andhra Pradesh. He has single handedly revived the previously banned temple dances of Andra Pradesh, and renamed the dance form Andra Nathyam. In this meeting he took an interest in Sandeep and asked Sandeep about his financial position as well as his family commitments. Sandeep explained that as the eldest and only son, he would have to provide for his family’s future. So the great guru, with lots of care, gave Sandeep his best advice to try to help him: He said “There is no financial future in dance, so how will you ever support you family from such a career – Don’t do it”. But Sandeep would not hear it and insisted to him that dance was going to be his life. Nataraja Ramakrishna could see that Sandeep was really keen so he made this suggestion to him: “Go and dance in 101 temples in front of the Gods, and then lets see…”. Sandeep told he he would do exactly that.

So Sandeep took a logbook with him, in which he would record every performance, and got each one witnessed by a priest. He danced in many temples all over Andra Pradesh, and sometimes the priests of the temple would spontaneously honor him and award him. In a very auspicious 41 days he completed his performances in 108 temples (Sandeep thought this was a more auspicious number). After that he immediately returned to the guru’s home with the proof. As he waited to see him he could hear Nataraja Ramakrishna talking to his friend about this incredibly determined young man, who was going to sincerely go and follow his request and dance in 101 temples. At this moment Sandeep stepped in, and Ramakrishna was totally baffled that Sandeep was already back, and had more than completed his task. He was overwhelmed and gave him as big hug; he was very moved. He then said “Allright, now you can become my disciple”. Sandeep replied “No thank you Sir, I am sorry, but I want to learn Kuchipudi, I really have no interest in Andra Natyam”. This of course stunned the guru even more.

To this day Nataraja Ramakrishna, who has many disciples, still tries his level best to entice Sandeep to become his disciple, and for him to take the artform of Andra Nathyam into the future. Sandeep and Ramakrishna have a wonderfully loving relationship, and Sandeep is forever grateful for the way in which he came to learn dance in the temples directly from God, and not from any one guru.