Day 1 
Dance 2 - KUCHIPUDI

The second dance was Kuchipudi and it was performed by Raja and Radha  Reddy and their team.

They performed 3 items.Of these the first was Vandana, second dance was based on Geetha govindam and the last was a dance drama based on the Bhagwat Gita. Tarangam was a part of this dance drama.

I am not an expert to comment on the correctness of these dances but as a viewer, I found it very disappointing. The dance was slow with hardly any display of footwork considering the vast variety of steps that Kuchipudi boasts of. The postures of the accompanying dancers and also their formations were very immature. It almost looked as if they had no practice or rigour.

Radha Reddy came onto stage only in the last performance largely an Abhinaya (expression) based item. It was a relief to see her expressions that depicted the confusion that Arjuna faced on the battlefield and the subsequent submission to Krishna’s instruction. Her postures were beautiful. There were glimpses of the co-ordindation between Radha and Raja Reddy.

The last dance was the specialised item of Kuchipudi i.e dance on brass plate. It is a fast paced dance set in the third speed (taala) and requires training to be able to stand with both feet on the edges of a brass place. At least in this dance there was some co -ordination between the dancers.

Overall a very disappointing performance considering that the festival brochures as well as all hoardings carried a beautiful photograph of these iconic dancers who popularised the dance form Kuchipudi in the last 4 decades.