Interview with the Maryland-based artist.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Local kuchipudi artist Chitra Kalyandurg performed in “Leela: Play of the Divine,” recently here, in which she used classical Indian dance, accompanied by an on-stage musical ensemble, to tell the story of two lovers.
“‘Leela’ is an exploration of the idea of ‘play’ through the character of Krishna and the stories that surround him,” Chitra said of her brainchild, which she choreographed and then worked with Kalanidhi Dance to present it at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, on April 24, in an interview to The American Bazaar. “We see play through the celebration of music and rhythm, Krishna’s love-play with Radha, and even the way he plays with her heart and often times breaks it.”
Kuchipudi, the style explored in “Leela,” is dance form that originated in Andhra Pradesh — which is incidentally where Chitra’s parents hail from. They immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1970s, and eventually moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where Chitra was born in the ’80s.
When Chitra was “six or seven,” in the 1980s per her recollections, a kuchipudi dancer began teaching lessons at her local Chinmaya mission in Silver Spring. Since she had shown an interest in dance and kuchipudi is from Andhra Pradesh, her parents, Sivaram and Avanija Kalyandrug — a now retired bio-statistician and administrator for a non-profit scientific society, respectively — jumped at the chance for their daughter to connect with her Telugu heritage.
The budding kuchipudi star simultaneously attended to her academics in Maryland before being accepted to New York University for undergrad studies.
Chitra eventually went on to study under two different gurus, Anuradha Nehru — founder and artistic director of Kalanidhi Dance — and Jaikishore Mosalikanti. While the former has taught for over 20 years in the United States, the latter guru is based out of Chennai, India, where Chitra spent three months training with him in 2008.
“Kuchipudi is at its core a storytelling art form. You cannot remove meaning from the movement, even if you are just doing a technical piece where the focus is solely on the rhythm. A kuchipudi dancer’s face is always alive and telling a story through the movement,” she said in the interview.
“I once did a workshop in contemporary dance where the instructor asked me to try to turn off my face so that we could just focus on my body and what the dance was showing through movement. It was so hard for me, because as kuchipudi dancers we are trained to use every part of our body at every moment! That’s what makes it so exciting,” she continued.
Chitra draws her inspiration from sharing kuchipudi through a multi-disciplinary, collaborative lens.
“I’ve become very interested in creating ensemble work that helps connect diverse audiences to the themes present in classical Indian dance, she explained. “I especially like drawing from different artistic mediums to support the Indian dance and to create shared meaning.”
Before “Leela,” Chitra worked on “The Nayika Project,” which premiered in Washington DC at the Intersections Festival in 2014. The piece, which she called her most memorable to date, was a collaboration between herself and a hip-hop theatre artist. The production saw the duo amalgamate ancient Indian poetry and the modern, topical story of two women exploring love and relationships.
“It showcases Indian dance and it creates meaning for a wide audience. It was a lot of work, but it was something we both undertook out of our love for the idea and certainty that it would be very unique. We took about three to four years to put it together and it got such an amazing reception. It touched audiences in a way we never expected,” Chitra said.
When she isn’t immersing herself in the rich world of kuchipudi, Chitra works full-time as a programmer manager for the Science & Technology Policy Fellowship program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
While dancing is not Chitra’s primary vocation, because she dances at the professional level, she revealed performance and choreography tend to exhaust all of the creative energy that she has. However, cooking and gardening rank among her favorite past times.
She has one brother, Malik, who is not involved in kuchipudi and currently works in one of Boeing’s finance departments in Seattle, Washington state.
Aside from the vast array of critical acclaim she’s received, Chitra was awarded the prestigious 2009 Princess Grace Dance Honoraria for her artistic excellence in kuchipudi.