Dear Friends:

Thank you very much for your wonderful response to the recent Kuchipudi Sammelanam Update mail. In that mail we promised that you would have the Audio/Video of 'Thillana' to practice/teach to participate in the 'Maha Brinda Natyam' on convention website. The Kuchipudi Convention website is not yet complete but we updated it with the AUDIO AND VIDEO PRESENTATION OF "THILLANA" IN RAGAM HINDOLAM AND ADITALAM TO TEACH / PRACTICE IS AVAILABLE ON OUR CONVENTION WEB SITE http://kuchipudi.siliconandhra.org/2010/thillana.html THIS AUDIO & VIDEO IS MADE AVAILABLE BY KUCHIPUDI ART ACADEMY, CHENNAI, WRITTEN AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY PADMA BHUSHAN GURU DR. VEMPATI CHINNA SATYAM AND PERFORMED BY MRS. SRIMAYI VEMPATI, SENIOR DISCIPLE AND DANCE INSTRUCTOR KUCHIPUDI ART ACADEMY, CHENNAI. A very special thanks to Sri Vempati Venkat garu for working hard to create this video in time. Please share with all your students, parents and friends all across the world and encourage them to be part of 'Maha Brinda Natyam' to pay tributes to Saint Sidhendra Yogi and spread Kuchipudi dance further across the world. Thank you.

Best regards,
Anand Kuchibhotla

On behalf of everyone at SiliconAndhra, I would like to update with the progress to host the historic 2nd International Kuchipudi Dance Convention from December 24th to 26th, 2010 in Hyderabad in association with Government of Andhra Pradesh. Here are a few updates:

Convention Venue: The magnificent Gachibowli Sports Complex, Hyderabad is finalized as the Convention venue. The main convention will be held in the fully air-conditioned sprawling Indoor stadium with a capacity to seat 7000
people. The Grand Finale will be held in the presence of 40,000 people at GMC Balayogi Stadium in the same complex which is just a few hundred feet away. For our Convention, the Gachibowli Sports Village would be turned into a beautiful Dance Village (Natya Gramam) to give a memorable experience to all the delegates.

Artist Response: Personally met and talked to a lot of Kuchipudi Gurus, Young Artists and students across India about the upcoming Convention. All of them are very excited and showed keen enthusiasm to get actively involved. Hundreds of them are sending mails to take active part even in the planning. The current response indicates that there will be several thousand dancers present at the Convention.

Thillana: At the Grand Finale, several thousand dancers are expected to dance for the 'Thillana' in HindoLam composed/choreographed by the legendary 'Padma Bhushan' Sri Vempati Chinna Satyam 'Master garu'. The audio/video to teach/practice would be made available to all in the next ten days. This would be the 'Maha Brinda Natyam' paying rich tributes to Sri Siddhendra Yogi and thus create a NEW world record by breaking the old record created at the Cupertino Convention. 100 Million people are expected to watch the same on TVs across the world.

Artist/Student Directory: It is planned to bring out a directory of 'World Kuchipudi Artists/Students' on this occasion. The details would be sent out soon in a separate mail.

Hotels: Negotiated heavily discounted prices for the comfortable stay of the delegates near the Convention venue. The details would be published soon on the website.

Food: Authentic delicacies from different regions of Andhra Pradesh are planned to be part of a 20 course sumptuous 'Telugu Bhojanam' for the lunch and dinner. The menu would be published soon on the website.

SiliconAndhra requests you to mark your calendars and make your travel plans to be at the convention from December 24th to 26th, 2010. Your presence at this convention would be an inspiration for generations to come. As you know the theme of the convention is 'Yuvatha Kuchipudi Bhavitha!' (Youth is the Future of Kuchipudi. Please encourage our youngsters to participate. Sincerely request you to spread the word as extensively as possible to all Kuchipudi Gurus, Students, Scholars and everyone else who may be interested in Kuchipudi. More details would be available in the near future. Thank you very much.

SiliconAndhra is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, established in 2001, with the goals to maintain, preserve, and perpetuate the Telugu Culture, Literature and Tradition. SiliconAndhra is incorporated in California, USA with non-profit organization Tax ID # 77-0578707. More information could be found at http://www.siliconandhra.org


Best regards,

Anand Kuchibhotla

408-718-0040

anand@siliconandhra.org

Kuchipudi: Fading Footsteps?

By Indian Express
Sunday November 26, 05:37 AM

Born of the Bhakti movement in the 7th century, in a land which today is more likely to be known for its success in Information Technology, Kuchipudi is Andhra Pradesh's gift to the world. However, its golden legacy notwithstanding, the popularity of Kuchipudi appears to be waning. Giving credence to this sentiment of the connoisseurs is the dwindling number of performances and the relatively better reception received by other forms of classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kathakali and Kathak. For an art that gave to the world many prominent names including Raja and Radha Reddy, Hema Malini, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Padma Subramaniam, Lakshmi Vishwanathan, Shobha Naidu, Kamala Reddy, Shobha Natarajan, Shasikala and Shanta Rati Misra, the scale and magnitude of talent is on the downslide. A living legend in the dance world and the man behind the Kuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai, Dr Vempati Chinna Satyam, feels that dedication in artists is the need of the hour. The fading out of the Guru-Shishya concept and ''the impatience of youngsters to achieve everything fast,'' are amongst the other reasons cited by the Padma Bhushan award recipient, who belongs to the ninth generation of a family of Kuchipudi dancers. Mastering a classical art form is impossible with this attitude. ''The Kuchipudi dancer is a multiple person on stage and this multiplicity is achieved by the swift change of mime, which depends more on the combination of the natural form of the dramatic content and the symbolism of the poetic intensity of an entire episode,'' says Dr Satyam. ''It requires three-four hours of rigorous practice daily,'' explains Vempati Ravi Sankar, son of Dr Satyam. A dance cannot be mastered instantaneously, a lesson that is taught first thing at the Kuchipudi Academy, whose portals have seen over 8,000 students in the last 40-years. While fast becoming a solo presentation, Kuchipudi still maintains strong ties with the dance-drama tradition. Only a few other classical dance forms offer as much scope in terms of creativity as Kuchipudi. Yet, it is not drawing the masses. While its close cousin Bharatanatyam acquired recognition and international fame, Kuchipudi lagged behind. Admitting that ups and downs are common to every art, most are confident that good days will come back for the dance form. Not without efforts, however. A parallel festival to the Marghazi month of music in Chennai could be one way of promoting the dying art form. Government support is definitely another aspect that needs to be strengthened, while young talent needs to be sought and encouraged.

Anand's Comment: I think the International Kuchipudi Dance Convention 2008 would be another initiative in the right direction. Let us put our hearts and souls to stop this 'FADING' sentiment. Thank you.