Kuchipudiexponent Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma, who played a crucial role in taking theart form from a tiny village in Krishna district to the international stage,passed away at a private hospital in Vijayawada early Friday morning. He was77.
He was suffering from a lung infection and had been in hospital for thelast two weeks. Born into a traditional Kuchipudi family to Vedantam Venkataratnamand Subbamma on Sept. 9, 1935, Satyanarayana Sarma (aka Satyam) was initiatedinto dance early. He was trained under the exacting supervision of his elderbrother Vedantam Prahlada Sarma. He learnt music under Yeleswarapu Seetharamanjaneyuluin Kuchipudi and later under the famous vocalist and violinist Sishta BrahmaiahSastry in Machilipatnam. Satyam always felt that it was Siddhendra Yogi, the founderof Kuchipudi himself, who blessed him with a wealth of talent and success. Kuchipudiis the only originally male-tradition that takes pride in celebrating the roleof womanhood. And no one could match Satyanarayana Sarma in perfecting the roleof Satyabhama.
He was the lead dancer of the Venkatarama Natya Mandali lead byChinta Krishnamurthy and won many accolades for his female portrayals over the years.He played Usha in Usha Parinayam, Satyabhama in Bhamakalapam, Mohini in MohiniRukmangada, Deva Devi in Vipra Narayana, Sasirekha in Sasirekha Parinayam,Gollabhama in Gollakalapam. Satyanarayana Sarma received several honours and titlesincluding the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1961 and was chosen a fellow ofthe academy in 1968. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1970. In addition to hisperformances and choreography, much of his time was devoted to trainingKuchipudi disciples.
His school, Nartanasala, under the aegis of the theCentral Sangeet Nataka Academy offers a full-fledged course in Kuchipudi dance.In 1973, the government of Andhra Pradesh commissioned and produced a film onKuchipudi.