Guru Bhuyo Namah! Teachers dispel darkness and illumine our lives with their knowledge. On this Teachers Day we show our special Gratitude for their noble efforts and rededicate to follow their teachings and emulate them. Arts and dance is no different and in fact the need and remembrance of the Guru is upto the very end of this birth’s journey for a true artist. When it comes to Kuchipudi art form, as mentioned often it is time to show our Gratitude to a very long list of personalities who have shaped and made it available across the Globe. Almost upto the first half of the 20th century the mode of teaching was primarily the Gurukul system where in the Guru or teacher was everything for the student - artist. The transformation that the society in general witnessed duet to industrialization followed with the technology explosion the role of the Guru has not changed a wee bit, while on the contrary it has manifold increased in importance. The thrust given by legends like Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastry with a paradigm shift from drama tradition to Solos paved way for more artists initially and interestingly enough more Gurus / teachers all over the world who have spread the art form to the every nook and corner of the Globe. The journey from the Kuchipudi village to the Global village is a long story but it is time to reminiscence some of the stellar contributions the past few decades. Growth of different dimension has influenced by Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastry was followed up with popularization of the art form beyond the Telugu populace with efforts of a list of artists which includes Vedantam Raghavaiah, Pasumarthi Krishnamurthy, Vempati Peda Satyam through celluloid. Vedantam Parvatesam, Bhagavatula , Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma, C R Acharayulu and of course the visionary and definitely one of the most audacious and acknowledged Guru who almost single handedly ensured that it spread to different parts of the world by sending across performers, artists, Gurus all over, from his fortress like temple of Dance, Kuchipudi Art Academy, Chennai by Vempati Chinna Satyam. Gurus like Raja Reddy, Jayarama Rama Rao, Vittals took even the capital of an Independent India by storm with the documented efforts of Indrani Rehman, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Swapna Sundari, etc. Vempati chiseled artists with such hallmark batch after batch from Chennai, ilke Ratna papa, Shashikala, Kamala Reddy, Anuradha Nehru, Shobha Naidu, Manju Bhargavi, Hema Choudhury, Bala Kondal Rao to name a few who established as artists and also set up institutions to teach the art form. With an added option for academic pursuit and the corollary research works witnessed with the Institutionalization of the art form we have seen teachers, scholars of repute take centre stage like Uma Rama Rao, Anuradha Jonnalgadda, Alekya Punjala, Rajyalakshmi Seth and others who have also churned students from Universities / Institutes year after year with their painstaking efforts. The teachers of the art form have also taken the art form to a varied culture, socio economic strata hitherto untouched with their dedication, passion and love for the art form, though there are instances of the inevitable natural fallout of commercialization, namely the dilution of traditional approach in the process. Hence, now is the time to rededicate, to come together as a fraternity of performers, artists, Gurus, organizers, cynosures, art critics, art activists and put the shoulder together to the wheel leaving no stones unturned to keep the rich traditions which have been handed over to us by the teachers of so many centuries with the same innocence and purport with which we got the art form into the core of our being. The call on this year’s Teachers Day is for all of us since we are indebted to our Guru for all our personal landmarks. Since in all our efforts it is our Guru who is being reflected first and foremost and the results of our efforts are direct proportion to the invocation of the Grace of the Guru lineage right upto Bharata Muni. It is all after all Guru’s bhiksha to us and the whole purpose of our existence is to show our Gratitude by spreading the art form more as a Guru Dakshina which will surely warm the hearts of the Gurus in heavens and shower their blessings upon us to continue their work in this mortal existence. -Tadepalli.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:00:26 +0000
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