The Peabody Essex Museum, in collaboration with MITHAS, brought the world-renowned Kuchipudi dancers Raja and Radha Reddy to perform as part of an ongoing project to enlighten the public about South Asian culture. This event occurred in conjunction with the expansion of the Museum’s Indian art exhibit to include art “Of Gods and Mortals.” Raja and Radha Reddy’s talents lend significance to the exhibit – Kuchipudi’s main themes, like those in other forms of Indian art, are the adventures and relationships of Gods and mortals. Sudarshan Belsare, an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer and PEM educator introduced the performers. The auditorium, though small, was packed and afforded an intimate view of the performance.

The show opened with the traditional Kuchipudi invocation “Vani Paraku.” Danced by Raja and Radha Reddy, the piece demonstrated their iconic status in classical Indian dance; not only does the dancing couple have perfect synchrony in an item that doesn’t involve group work, they also provide a glimpse of what will come in the program. Raja Reddy also explained the meaning of each piece both in terms of the song’s lyrics, and its personal connection to the troupe. The explanations put the viewer in the place of a student – the stories allow the audience to connect to the dancers as well the dancing itself. Prafulla Vellury, a Kuchipudi dance instructor from Rhode Island, commented that “As teachers and performers, Raja and Radha Reddy’s art attains a much higher level than just teaching alone without the infusion of performance, or performance alone without the infusion of teaching.”

Other items in the program included the Krishna Tandava, danced by the fifteen-year-old Bhavana Reddy, whose youth lent itself well to the story of Krishna dancing on the head of Kalinga, and the Shiva Tandava, powerfully and gracefully done by the athletic older Reddy daughter, Yamini. One of the high points in the program was a dream sequence of the demon princess Usha in which Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha comes to court her. Raja and Radha Reddy brought out the tenderness between young lovers as expressed by the Sringara rasa. The other highlight was a piece in which the technical brilliance of Kuchipudi was expressed – each of the five members of the dance troupe demonstrated the beauty of one of the five jatis – tisram, chatusram, khandam, misram, and sankirnam. While the steps chosen were simple, the movements of all five together and the positions made the piece sparkle. The performance ended with a short selection from a Tarangam, in which Raja, Radha, Yamini and Bhavana Reddy danced on brass plates. The musical accompaniments consisted of vocals by Krishna Mohan, flute by Kumar, violin by Narayanan, mrindagam by Bhaskar Rao and Nattuvangam by Kausalya Reddy.

The Peabody Essex Museum and MITHAS’ commitment to bringing artists of this caliber to the Boston area gives viewers a rare opportunity outside India, even allowing them to meet the artists in a short reception after the performance.

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