Chavali (Vempati) Balatripurasundari

Balatripurasundari as Lord Sri Rama.

Chavali (Vempati) Balatripurasundari, youngest daughter of Guru Padma Bhushan Vempati Chinna Satyam and Smt. Swarajya Lakshmi in the year 1966, had fortune of literally sitting on the lap of her illustrious father and seeing his students dance. It led her father to out of love chide her to do the dance that she had seen thus from his lap.

By fourth standard in school, she did her first performance with jatiswaram and puja. She learned dance along with other students of her father. She performed in Srinivasa Kalyanam ballet at the Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai and also took part in a ballet in Chennai Doordarshan in 1970s.

Balatripurasundari has a certificate in Kuchipudi dance and diploma in music (veena) and Bachelors in music from University of Madras.

While she was allowed to learn dance, when it came to performances and furthering her career, there was no direct encouragement from her father. May be, more due to the traditional and orthodox family that she was born into and the values of her father based on his experience.

After marriage, her in laws, encouraged her and instilled in her the pride and belief to continue dance by teaching. Balatripurasundari took the cue and started teaching Kuchipudi dance in Vijayawada after seeking the blessings of her father.

Soon after life took a turn and she moved with her family to Muscat for over a decade. Encouraged by Tamil Sangam and the Indian community at Muscat, she performed in various programs and ballets and her teaching to Indian children kept her in a big way in Kuchipudi Dance.

Bala as Lord Shiva

Seeing her dance in particular as Lord Shiva, the dance patrons saw her father’s touch in her performances. She longed for the appreciation from her father for her dance while she received accolades from various quarters for her dancing. The day her father Vempati Chinna Satyam saw her dance videos, he exclaimed that it was good and that gave Balatripurasundari her immense joy and sense of fulfillment.

On return from Muscat, she worked with Keerthana Acamedy, Hyderabad for four years in the early part of this century and then she started her dance institute, ‘Abhinayavani Nritya Niketan’ at Hyderabad, training her students to dance, perform and qualify academically in dance. She is now encouraging her daughter also to dance the tradition of handing over the reins from generation to generation continues.

She choreographed around ten dance items based on pillari geetams in abhyasa ganam and keerthanas.

To top over the various choreographies that her father had created, she says that the work of her father is so vast and immense that one life is not enough to learn, do and master the same leave alone create new choreographies.

Her father has often been described as the maestro with a mission to spread Kuchipudi, being born into one of the traditional family. Balatripurasundari fells an inner urge with a thirst to do something for the art form like her father. Out of all humility, she says humbly that the more she teaches dance she is realizing how much she has learnt from her father.

Chavali (Vempati) Balatripurasundari

ABHINAYAVANI NRITYA NIKETAN

7-1-45, Flat # 202, Venkateswara Towers

Dharam Karam Road,

Near KK Function Hall,

Ameerpet, Hyderabad.

Ph: (91) 94408 91827

(040) 2373 7433.