Kuchipudi village

The village of Kuchipudi in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, 65 kilometres from Vijayawada — the eponymous centre of the Kuchipudi classical dance-drama tradition. The tradition was reportedly founded in the 15-century by Siddhendra Yogi (c.1400-1500), who codified the dance-drama performance and composed the foundational Bhama Kalapam (the story of Krishna's consort Satyabhama) as the central performative text. The dance was traditionally performed only by male Brahmin dancers (Bhagavathars) from the Kuchipudi village. The 1950s revival of Kuchipudi under Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastry and Vempati Chinna Satyam opened the dance to women and to the concert stage. The 1954 Sangeet Natak Akademi recognition of Kuchipudi as a classical dance form. The Siddhendra Yogi Kalakshetra at Kuchipudi village is the gurukula institution. The 2009 GI tag for Kuchipudi as a cultural heritage. The village has about 300 families still practising the tradition.