vembatti ravi sankar

[padmanabha]

Kuchipidi is known for the various balancing feats. With an ornate bras pot resting on the head the dancer improvises a few rhythmic patterns with in the given time scale. Some times the dancer does the same on a spherical pot placed upside down.

“Though these illustrates the technical virtuosity required for a kuchipidi dancer, it is more than mere balancing feats” said Vempatti Ravi Sankar son of DR.Vembatti Chinna Satyam the legendary Kuchipidi dancer.

Ravi with his troupe performed Kuchipidi based exclusively on Swati Tirunal compositions, in connection with Swati Tirunal Nritha Sangeetholsavam, at Karthika Tirunal Theatre. This is for the first time that we are staging exclusively Swati compositions. It took four months to choreograph.



Kuchipidi was male oriented dance. Female characters were performed by men. It was Vedantam Lekshmi Narayana Sastri my father’s guru who introduced female dancers.
His role in and as Bhama in Bhama kalapam was very popular. Legendary Balasaraswati was his disciple.
My father continued the tradition of his guru. When he reached Chennai, popularity had attained much popularity. HE TOOK IT AS A MISSION TO REVIVE Kuchipidi” said Ravi and continued, “In 1963 he established Kuchipidi ART ACADEMY. Many were of the opinion that kuchipidi is a folk dance.”

“The movements are based on Natyasastra. Initially he received plenty of brickbats.It took 30 years to convince the connoisseurs. He had composed 180 solos, and 18 ballets. TIRTHA Narayana Yati’s famous dance opera Krishna leela tharangini is a renowned work. Golla Kalapam by RAMAIH Sastri, Gita Govindam by Jayadeva, and compositions of Tyagaraja were his favorite numbers.
Ravi started learning dance at the age of eight.
NOW he is too busy, and has performed all over the world. Ravi is planning to conduct Kuchipidi workshop all over India with the objective of passing on the true tradition of Kuchipidi to the tutors. (I E MAY 2005)