DANCE …… MY PASSION MY JOURNEY…
I come from a family of artistes where my grandfather was a writer and my aunt who herself is a classical dancer and is my Guru as well. My father D.Narasinga Rao is an Officer who belongs to Indian Railway Traffic Service and my mother is a teacher. My major support and my backbone in my dance career is my grandmother who has encouraged and accompanied me through all my performances.I have started learning Kuchipudi dance from the age of six years. I was inspired by my Guru SwathySomanath as I used to watch her programmes and showed interest in learning dance. In the beginning I thought having makeup , jewellery and dance dress was enough to perform on stage. After a few performances I have learnt that besides these something more is important. The footwork which is ”PADA VINYASAM” and the facial expression i.e, “ABHINAYA” are very important. I have given around 200 solo performances in India and abroad. I have also performed for reputed organisations like Naadaneerajanam [TTD], ,Tapas Academy in Chennai, 2nd India-Brazil-South African (IBSA) Summit held at Johannesburg through Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi. Also performed in Latin American countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Aruba (Caribbean Islands),Chitanya Art Theater and RJ media.
MY EXPERIENCES…
Though I have given many performances in India, one of the most memorable one was for World Telugu Conference at Tirupati 2012. During this conference artistes from the whole world gathered under one roof showcasing various cultures of Andhra Pradesh. It was a great honour performing and sharing the stage with reputed artistes from different parts of the world.
Another performance wasBhakthiSammelan, at Shilpakalavedika in Hyderabad where in NTV and BhakthiTV had organised this event where the most eminent VedicPandits were honoured.
Another exciting experience was in Mexico where I performed in a market place. When I started my performance there were only a handful of people watching but as time passed there were around 6000 people watching my performance for almost an hour. That performance was a challenging one for me.
During my trip to Venezuela, I was called to give a performance for a Spanish organisation. They gave a standing ovation after my performance though our art & culture was totally new to them. We had exchanged our art form with their “TAP DANCE”.
I really appreciate the response of the audience abroad as those people though werenot able to understand our language, culture and tradition still could understand the meaning of what I portrayed during my performance . The interest and dedication shown towards our culture is one thing what we Indians have to learn.
My aunt being my Guru is a great strength to me as I need not struggle to learn dance like others. I have always got the encouragement and support from her in this field. All these years I have been performing items taught by my Guru. But now I take ideas from her and I choreograph items. I don’t reflect her style staright away as I don’t like imitationI like to experiment with existing dance forms. In this connection, I want to learn kathakand perform a solo jugalbandi which is a new concept in indian classical dance. A jugalbandi ofkuchipudi and kathak in a single item performed by me.
HinduCulture is the most ancient and richest culture in world. Our Indian cow is symbolic of this richness and Hindu dharma is personified in the form of cow. Now due to various reasons we are losing this dharma. I want to serve by protecting our ancient cow. In this connection, I want to donate some amount from my performances.I have already started donating to “GO SADAN” near tankbund in Secunderabad.
My desrire is to continue and preserve the tradition established by age old Guru’s of kuchipudi Dance. I am able to do this by passing this wonderful tradition to future generations through “NrityaBharati”, where I am teaching kuchipudi dance to intrested students.
