A fitting tribute to a Kuchipudi legend

Students of Kuchipudi dancer late Uma Rama Rao offered a fitting tribute to their guru, by performing the dance ballet, Vyuhalakshmi Avirbham, that the veteran once popularly orchestrated. Held at Ravindra Bharathi recently, the young dancers cast a spell on the audiences as they narrated the story of Lord Venkateswara and his union with Padmavathi through their apt abhinaya.The ballet written by Tarigonda Vengamamba had Phani Narayan providing a stirring background score with vocals by Sattiraju Venumadhav and Sweta Prasad. Actor-director K Vishwanath who graced the event remembered Uma Rama Rao’s contribution towards popularising Shahaji’s Yakshaganam in Kuchipudi and added that it was the responsibility of her disciples to carry forward her legacy.
A TORCH BEARER OF THE YAKSHAGANA TRADITION
Kuchipudi veteran, guru and Sangeet Natak Akademi-winner Uma Rama Rao is a dancer-par-excellence who strived to popularise Yakshaganas and Prabhandhas in her stellar career. She spearheaded several distance education programmes across universities. Some of her celebrated works in a career spanning six decades include Nauka Charitra, Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam, Vigneswara Kalyanam, Sadhvi Rukmini and Parijatapaharanam. Actively involved in research and dance choreography, she took it upon herself to be a torchbearer of Indian traditions.