Kuchipudi dance exponent and founder of Muvva Nritya Raaga Nigamam, Dr. Hima Bindu Kanoj, is soon coming up with another special feature titled – Chiru Muvvalu – The Little Bells of Muvva. She will be hosting this platform for the little ones, immediately after Diwali. Earlier this year, she successfully hosted the Parichay series, where artists from across the country were given a platform to showcase their talent.
Speaking to Natyahasini, Dr. Hima Bindu Kanoj, says that this is an initiative by Muvva Nritya Raaga Nigamam to motivate the junior students of Muvva who are in the initial and secondary stages of learning Kuchipudi dance. “Till date, we have conducted two offline editions of this yearly festival, before the COVID pandemic. Now, we are getting back to the third edition through a virtual series of performances of the little learners of Muvva,” she says.
The dance teacher says that the concept is unique in a sense that it is more of a debut for a dancer to get onto the stage for the first time. “While a performance motivates the learner, we take this opportunity to make them understand the discipline, time management, hard work and the back stage preparations required for a performance to be successful. Hence, this initiative is more of opening the doors of a performance stage to a dancer while understanding what all it takes to do a performance,” the artist says.
On the selection process, the teacher says that the students have been selected on the basis of their attendance, interest, discipline and ability to pick up the lessons. “There are two solo performers and other students will be performing as a group. As this is a virtual series, we have made the students perform in all the categories of solo, duet and trio,” she says. Dr. Hima Bindu shares that the new event is a weekly series of eight episodes featuring around 15 students of Muvva, who are into their fundamental jatis and the initial items of the Kuchipudi repertoire. “It is an earnest attempt to encourage the budding steps of the learners, to instil confidence in them and make them understand that dance has to be learnt as a full-fledged form which requires hard work, dedication and discipline,” she states. Dr. Hima Bindu calls for forgiving small mistakes of the little ones and bless the youngsters with a big heart and motivate them towards learning the beautiful dance form of Kuchipudi.