Kuchipudi (కుచిపుడి) is a classical dance form from Andhra Pradesh, a state of South India. Kuchipudi is the name of a small village in the Divi Seema of Krishna district that borders the Bay of Bengal and with resident Brahmins practising this traditional dance form, it acquired the present name.
With the dance form attaining perfection by the time of Golconda king Abdul Hassan Tanesha, Kuchipudi brahmins are said to have received 600 acres (2.4 km²) of land as an endowment from Tanesha for the great presentation before him.
Siddhendra Yogi is said to be the first scholar to give it the current form of dance drama. Bhamakalapam is one of his celebrated compositions. He also reserved the art to males by teaching it to young brahmin boys of the village. However, in modern times, the art has been dominated by women.
The performance usually begins with some stage rites, after which each of the character comes on to the stage and introduces him/herself with a daru (a small composition of both song and dance) to introduce the identity, set the mood, of the character in the drama. The drama then begins. The dance is accompanied by song which is typically carnatic music. The singer is accompanied by mridangam (a classical South Indian percussion instrument), violin, flute and the tambura (a drone instrument with strings which are plucked). Ornaments worn by the artists are generally made of a light weight wood called Boorugu.
Some of the well known people in this tradition are Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam[1], Vedantam Lakshminarayana, Dr. Uma Rama Rao, Tadepalli Perayya, Chinta Krishna Murthy, Padma Sri Vedantam Sathya Narayana Sarma,Mrinalini Sadananda,Sobha Naidu, Pasumarthi Venu Gopala Krishna Sarma.
A Guinness Book world record was set in Cupertino as the largest number of dancers (318) performed Kuchipudi, the ancient Indian classical dance form, here on June 21.
The feat was authenticated by Danny Girton of the Guinness Book of world records at the site in DE Anza College in Cupertino, Silicon Valley, California.
About 2,000 people attended the conference, Participants included dancers from five continents assembled to set a world record and participate in the three day International Kuchipudi Dance conference on June 20- 22.
Also present were Mayor Dolly sandoval of Cupertino, Supervisor Liz Kniss and Fremont City Councilmember Anu Natarajan, Minster of State HRD Purandeswari and others.
Organizers also held a parade titled 'Kuchipudi Shobha Yatra,' led by Mayor Dolly Saldoval, and other local digintaries as wel as those who have kept the art alive.
Also on display were several festive statues brought from Kuchipudi village in India.
The event honored renowned Kuchipudi exponents like Vempati Chinnasatyam, Yamini Krishnamoorthy, Raja and Radha Reddy, Pasumarthi Gopalakrishna,Vedanta Satyanarayana Sharma and others.
Various performances by local Kuchipudi dance schools and also grad ballads conducted by renowned dance teachers were presented.
