Kuchipudi In Maharashtra
Read more about Vijaya Prasad's efforts to popularise Kuchipudi in Maharashtra.
Guru Smt.Vijaya Prasad
Guru
Smt.Vijaya Prasad has been practicing and teaching Kuchipudi dance for the last
50 years. She was initiated in the divine dance form of Kuchipudi at a tender
age of three by none other than The Great Kuchipudi Natya Acharya, Shri Vedantam Lakshmi Narayana Sastry. She was further trained in this art form by Guru Shri Yelleswrapu, Guru Shri Nageswra Sarma and Guru Shri Acharya Gautam.
She started giving stage performances from the age of eight. She has given more than 500 performances throughout India. Vijaya Prasad used to perform along with her cousin Mrs.Maruti Kesav and together they were well known in Andhra Pradesh as the ANDHRA SISTERS.
Vijaya Prasad was trained in the classical style of Kuchipudi. But she enhanced all her performances with her own unique elegant and mellifluous style. She performed beautifully all the traditional Kuchipudi dance items like Tarangam. She was more famous for her portrayal of Lord Krishna in "Gopi-Krishna" and Shiva in "Shiva Parvati" dance ballets, for she established these roles powerfully always to a standing ovation .
She received numerous awards, honors and citations ; notable among them are :- Honored by Sri Venkatagiri Raja in 1951.
- Conferred the title of 'Natya Sundra Kala Pravina' from Shri Ghanta Lanchanna
- Felicitated by the then Information and Broadcast Minister Smt Indira Gandhi and President of India Shri Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in 1963.
After marriage she settled down in Mumbai. Kuchipudi was virtually unknown in Maharashtra. Bharat Natyam and Kathak were the more well known classical dance forms, especially in Mumbai. As an ardent exponent of Kuchipudi dance, this pained Vijaya Prasad. So in 1981 she established the Kuchipudi Dance Academy, with an aim to popularise Kuchipudi in Maharashtra. Kuchipudi Dance Academy became the first and the only registered Dance Academy in Maharashtra to teach Kucipudi dance form.