Dance like a man!

HYDERABAD: Gender empowerment brought AP’s traditional Kuchipudi dance out of its rural confines to the national stage, says noted guru Jayarama Rao, who is transforming the language of the ancient dance with pan-Indian themes and elements of fusion. “For the last 40 years, women have been driving the genre to explore new strands of creativity since the all-male genre opened itself to women in the 1960s. Bulk of the kuchipudi dancers now are women,” Rao, who partners with his wife Vanashree on the stage, said.The maestro said the recognition of Kuchipudi as a classical dance by the government in 1960 paved the way for women like Yamini Krishamurthy and Indrani Rehman to storm the male bastion. “The women gave greater push to the genre outside Andhra Pradesh,” he contended.Around the same time, the Kuchipudi dance ballets of the 19th century introduced “solo acts” to carve a niche in the classical mainstream.“It has been a late dance form to become popular because the genre was confined to the Kuchipudi village in Andhra Pradesh where it was born. Those days, male dancers staged dance dramas and dance ballets in groups. It was more of a rural folk performing art; the only classical aspect being its mythological themes,” Rao said.As a student, Rao enacted the historical characters of Satyabhama, Usha and Leelavathy in dance dramas at the Sidhendra Kalashetram in Kuchipudi village (Kuchelakulam), 65 km from Vijaywada.The enactment of female characters helped Rao master both the “tandava” - manly vigour - and “lasya”- the feminine grace - in his style.The dance, which was supported by the rulers of Deccan has a Vedic origin. It was conceived and made popular in the villages of Andhra Pradesh by Vedic Brahmin scholar Sidhendra Yogi, who instructed boys in the devotional dance dramas.