Kuchipudi By Students Of Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts

With a name like Chandalika, you don't need a whole ballet to know what it's about. But we're guessing it'll be good. It's author won a Nobel prize.

Shilparamam, as part of the ongoing All-India Crafts Mela from 16th to 31st December, is organising a Kuchipudi dance ballet called Chandalika, by students of The Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts today, the 14th day.

The story is based on the 1933 Bengali Play Chandalika written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, about Prakriti, an untouchable girl, and her mother Maya who practised black magic to heal ailing people. The duo is obstracised by society because they were untouchables. The girl meets a buddhist monk Ananda and converts into Buddhism. She meets the Buddha, who addresses the issue of untouchability, and she ultimately attains Nirvana.

The ballet is being performed by 10 students of The Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts, with P B Pallavi as Prakriti, Anusha as Maya, and Apurva, P B Vaishnavi, Jaya, Keertana, Meghana, Shrithi, Mounika and Shama in the other roles. The orchestra for the performance comprises P R C Sarma on the mridangam, K Sai Kumar on the violin, Sweta Prasad with the vocals, Venkatesh on the flute and nattuvangam by P B Krishna Bharati.

The Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts was founded in 1987 by P B Krishna Bharati and her brother Dr S K Venkatachary. Dr Venkatachary is a renowned classical singer and director of the institute, while Krishna Bharati is the Principal of the institute and a Kuchipudi dancer, who initially trained under Vedantham Prahalada Sarma and is now under Dr Shobha Naidu.

Krishna Bharati is a M A in Dance from the Hyderabad Central University. She conducted a workshop of dance at Washington DC, and has given various performances there. She has been conferred upon the titles of Natya Visharada, Samskruti Ratna and Natyasri. The institute, in addition to Kuchipudi dance, also teaches vocal and instrumental music.

Please contact the venue at 2310-0455 for further details.