Veena Murthy Vijay on receiving the SNA Award and celebrating 50 years of her dance school
Kuchipudi dancer Veena Murthy Vijay was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contributions to the dance-drama tradition. She is noted for her efforts to modernize Kuchipudi pedagogy and make it accessible to younger generations.
Why it matters
Recognition of traditional artists by national institutions helps preserve cultural heritage while encouraging contemporary innovation in the arts.
“I have always tried to present Kuchipudi not only as a performance tradition, but also as a complete cultural and intellectual system,” says Veena Murthy Vijay.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) Award was recently bestowed on the Bengaluru-based dancer for her contributions to the field of Kuchipudi that led to a revival of the dance-drama tradition. Veena worked to restructure several aspects of the dance form to suit contemporary sensibilities, and has ideated productions that appeal to younger audiences.
“My experimentation is not at the cost of tradition; I have enhanced traditional pedagogy to make it relevant to young students with their present-day outlook,” she says. Veena has also written a Kannada book, Tere that traces the evolution of dance, which was published by the Karnataka Sangeeta Nrithya Akademi.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in