Columnist
Women’s Day brings Kuchipudi nayikas to the fore

Heralding Women’s Day, a
national festival, ‘Nayika’,
revolving round Kuchipudi,
was mounted by Bengaluru’s
Shambhavi School of Dance (dancer
Vyjayanti Kashi’s art initiative)
jointly with Kartik Fine Arts, at
the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan hall
in Chennai. Given the prominence
of the traditional nayikas in what
was an all-male nurtured dance
repertoire, this event was conceived
to discuss the contribution of
pre-eminent Kuchipudi women
performers. As the participants of
the morning seminar, on the first
floor of the mini auditorium of the
Bhavan earnestly read their papers,
substantiated by demonstrations, the
irony of discussing the contribution
of women in what was traditionally
an all- male tradition, would seem to
have been felt by only this critic.