Off Season Chats: Sai Venkata Gangadhar on Dance in the Age of Social Media
For a special two-part Off Season Chat, Ameya and Kiran speak with Sai Venkata Gangadhar, a Kuchipudi dancer and teacher from Hyderabad. This week, Gangadhar reflects on his dance journey and begins delving into the impact of his dance training, education, and social media on his art.
Off Season Chats is a new series in which we have intimate conversations with dancers who are forging new paths in their artistic, personal, and professional lives. Our special guests are accomplished artists whose works span across many genres of South Asian dance including: Kathak, Kandyan, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, Odissi, and much more.
About Sai Venkata Gangadhar:
Sai Venkata Gangadhar is a young Kuchipudi dancer from Hyderabad. He has been training at Nishrinkala Dance Academy under Guru Smt. Sandhya Raju for the past 13 years, and he is a postgraduate in Business administration. He also pursued his Masters in Kuchipudi from University of Hyderabad. He is one of the prime students of Smt. Sandhya Raju. Recognizing his dedication, she appointed him as an assistant teacher soon after his Rangapravesham in 2015.
He has participated several times with the Academy’s group ensemble and performed in many prestigious dance festivals including: Sangeet Natak Academy’s Nrityaprathibha festival, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha’s Pongal festivals, Gandharva, and many others. Also trained in gymnastics, he has taken this art as a profession and continuously works to understand and enjoy the nuances of his chosen dance style.
Instagram: @sai_venkata_gangadhar
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgEQ2F_PLAGW8l6ODIruOUQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gagadhar.venkat
Today’s episode of Off Season Chats would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of our amazing listeners and the following people:
We Edit Podcasts for audio engineering
Sangeetha Kowsik for graphic design of our logo
Kasi Aysola for transcription of the Telugu portions
Wesley Beeks & Bertel King, Jr.
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Telugu Translations
Gangadhar - 2:06 - My mother used to work in other people’s homes and my father worked as a driver
Gangadhar - 3:17 – So, this is how things went – they gave us good food to eat, and even gave money to pay for fees for things
Gangadhar - 3:47 – House keepers
Gangadhar - 4:04 - If I have to be honest
Gangadhar - 5:03 - She told them... what happened one day was.
Gangadhar - 6:07 - Putting kaṭakāmukham like this and like that
Gangadhar - 6:35 – Badly
Gangadhar – 7:14 – They arranged a bus from the basti to the two hour dance class
Gangadhar – 7:34 – Competitiveness
Gangadhar - 9:27 - Will we ever become like her? We used to think
Gangadhar - 9:31 - How do you say? they used to tease us, the other kids in the basti, and I was the only one
Gangadhar - 9:48 - They teased me a lot, all kids would say “what is this? This guy is learning girl’s dance!” We used to all get on the same bus. We used to go and come back on the same bus... when I entered the school bus, they used to tease me.
Gangadhar – 10:29 - Sandhya Akka drilled us
Gangadhar - 10:44 – Those who knew fewer steps than me
Gangadhar - 12:14 - Sandhya Akka took the mic and spoke
Gangadhar - 12:33 – Tenth standard means a lot of stress and pressure.
Gangadhar - 13:16 - She scolded me harshly saying “why did you come late?!”
Gangadhar - 13:56 – I entered into Kuchipudi dance
Ameya – 14:01 – When she was seeing the sincerity in you, she nurtured that in you
Ameya – 14:14 – One question is, now, you said Sandhya garu came, taught, and nurtured you. After your rangapravesam... There’s is a lot of conversation now that it’s hard to enter and hard to find support.
Gangadhar - 14:44 – Basically, Sandhya akka never spoon-fed us, even the way she taught... This is one thing she always said: If you rise up as an individual, that is when. you count as a dancer. Not as part of a group or with my support. She said ‘You have to bring your own opportunities. You need to advertise yourself.
Gangadhar - 15:14 - Since then
Gangadhar - 15:17 – It was very rigorous. After that, Sandhya Akka never went to any organizer and asked for a performance for me.
Gangadhar - 15:36 - She said “you have to get your own performances. If you dance properly, they will see you and invite you.”
Gangadhar - 15:47 - I used to do it like this. In the beginning, I hadn’t performed many times. It was very few times – you can count them on your fingers.
Gangadhar - 16:14 - They started asking me
Gangadhar - 16:31 – I have no idea what to do with those shawls. I started giving those shawls to my niece to get outfits stitched. At that time, I was studying in college.
Gangadhar - 18:37 – All of my friends would do their MBA. They’re focusing on other jobs but were doing their MBA just for the sake of doing it. I joined MBA classes the same way. While they were doing MBA to join government jobs, I was ditching MBA classes to do Tala lessons.
Gangadhar - 19:17 – That’s how it started in the initial times, but it was very, very difficult.
Ameya – 19:30 – Well, we have to be able to get through the month! Kiran and I talk a lot about it. How do we manage a household while pursuing dance full-time. That’s why we work now.
Kiran – 19:57 – Very difficult!
Gangadhar - 26:58 - actually I let go of a lot of performances
Kiran – 20:39 – Very expensive!
Ameya – 20:45 – When we speak of musicians. As artists, we know when they’re asking something, we have to pay. It’s difficult to bargain. Our work has value, so their work also has value. Just because we’re being asked to dance for free doesn’t mean we can ask [musicians] to work for free.
Gangadhar – 20:59 – How can we ask?
Ameya - 21:05 – That's the big question.
Ameya – 21:07 – So, you were teaching classes and performing. What else were you doing dance-wise?
Gangadhar - 21:15 – Actually, what happened was that after my MBA, just like for others, the pressures started for me too – need to work a job, need to earn money, need to lead the family. If I joined a job in the private sector, I’ll never find time to dance.
Ameya – 21:48 – It’s killing me.
Gangadhar - 22:06 - I used to prepare my lunch box for the day and get fully ready like a school boy, intending to go and study in the park. There wasn’t space at home, so I would plan to go and study in the park.
Gangadhar - 23:03 - From morning to evening
Gangadhar - 23:23 – I became fed up.
Gangadhar - 23:30 - I quickly went upstairs. My mother and father were sitting there. And then I told them.
Gangadhar – 24:13 – My dad, on that day, went straight to “What will you do, by dancing?” He started asking me questions. I don’t even have answers.
Gangadhar - 25:11 - That is how things are going currently
Ameya – 25:13 – During your MA, I saw you’d posted something based on movements from the Nṛtta Ratnāvali, right? I did my MA for Kuchipudi at the University of SiliconAndhra. I was so excited because I’d been thinking that without being in India and being literate in Telugu – I speak Telugu but my writing and reading is at a Kindergarten level. I knew that the Telugu University had a degree for Kuchipudi, but I felt like I had no scope for that, and thought I wouldn’t get an opportunity. As we’re exposed to these books and different concepts, it opens up a different understanding. When we’re practicing, we understand what it is as we’re doing it. But with these books, history, and other aspects, that view is so different.
Gangadhar - 26:17 - If you have observed me
Ameya – 26:36 – It feels like closing off, right?
Gangadhar – 26:39 – Even recently. My teacher would tell me from the beginning, Abhinaya needs to be like this and like that.
Gangadhar - 26:49 – She would never tell ‘Do it this way, do it that way.’
Gangadhar – 27:07 – The MA at Hyderabad Central University is very mind-opening. With those professors – Anuradha Jonnalagadda m’am and Aruna Bikshu m’am - they’re all – my goodness – they're stalwarts.
Gangadhar – 27:25 – Our syllabus is that way, our treatises are that way.
Gangadhar – 27:39 – As you said, in the Nṛtta Ratnāvali, if there’s a movement in there. With any one movement, there’s a thousand steps like this – I used to get shocked... How great gurus have done so many varieties with one pāda bedha... She was not telling “lift your heel this way.” In the Nṛtta Ratnāvali, it says “raise your heel” but you have to put thought in and determine how you lift the heel.
Ameya/Kiran – 28:55 – It was nice!
Gangadhar – 30:52 – This is a small... for example, what happens now is, because of social media influence, dancers my age and younger – they do all mixed styles.... In 30 seconds, we have to captivate the audience. In 10 seconds, we have to do extra movements.
Gangadhar – 35:27 – Yes, Anna. What happens is, as you said...
Gangadhar – 36:03 – How do you say, ‘their people’
Gangadhar – 39:10 – As you said