श्री नृत्यालयम्
శ్రీ నృత్యాలయం
Sri Nrityalayam
The school
Sri Nrityalayam teaches Kuchipudi as it was taught to its teachers, and sets out to make the form intelligible to people who have never encountered it.
Classes are one part of that work. This site is the other. A visitor who reads the pages on the form and never enrols has still been served.
Smt. P.B. Krishna Bharathi
Where the training comes from
Sridevi and Srijayanthi began Kuchipudi at the age of five under Smt. P.B. Krishna Bharathi, who teaches at the Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts in Habsiguda, Hyderabad, and who received the inaugural Telangana Governor's Award for her contribution to classical dance.
Krishna Bharathi was among the first disciples of Padma Shri Dr. Shobha Naidu. Shobha Naidu was the principal interpreter of Vempati Chinna Satyam, whose choreography forms the greater part of the modern Kuchipudi repertoire.
What is taught at Sri Nrityalayam descends through that line.
[Two or three sentences on Krishna Bharathi as a teacher: how she ran a class, what she was exacting about, what she refused to let pass.]
The line of teaching
- Vempati Chinna Satyam Choreographer of the modern repertoire
- Padma Shri Dr. Shobha Naidu His principal interpreter
- Smt. P.B. Krishna Bharathi Pallavi Academy of Fine Arts, Hyderabad
- Dr. Sridevi and Dr. Srijayanthi Sri Nrityalayam
The teachers
Dancer and teacher, Montreal
Dr. Sridevi Gudhimella
Sridevi trained under Krishna Bharathi from the age of five and continued through school and university. She holds a degree in homeopathic medicine and a master's degree in Kuchipudi from [institution, year].
She married, moved to Montreal, and had three children.
She resumed in [year], with no teacher within reach and no audience already familiar with the form. Her present repertoire and her Montreal teaching both date from that point. She has performed more than 100 times, in Hyderabad and in Montreal, and now works as a dancer and teacher full time.
Dancer and geophysicist, Gandhinagar
Dr. Srijayanthi Gudhimella
Srijayanthi trained under Krishna Bharathi from the same age and for the same years. She is a geophysicist at [institution] in Gandhinagar, which remains her profession.
She continued to practise after the move to Gujarat. Following the birth of her child she returned in 2022.
She has since performed across Gujarat, including at the Governor's residence and for the Telugu Sangham in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, to audiences of between five hundred and fifteen hundred. Her count stands above 100 performances, between Hyderabad and Gujarat.
How it is taught
Classes are held in person in Montreal and online.
Kuchipudi is corrected body by body, so classes are kept small enough for that to be possible.
Visit a class
Classes may be observed before enrolling. Write or send a message and we will tell you when the next one is.
శ్రీ నృత్యాలయం