In the additional Sunday morning workshops, we practice choreographies. Please send a message to inquire for Sunday workshops.

Individual and private classes upon request. Information und Anmeldung/registration: babli @ sandrachatterjee.net

Kuchipudi, one of the Indian classical dance forms, is named after the village Kuchilapuram/Kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh, South India. It traces its origins to a dance theatre form traditionally danced by Brahmin men from this very village, performing male and female roles. This dance theatre form, of which the performance of Lord Krishna’s wife Satyabhama is a central aspect, coexisted and interacted with other dance theatre forms from the Andhra region, as well as (solo) temple and court dance traditions performed by women, as the research of dance scholars and historians such as Rumya S Putcha and Davesh Soneji has illustrated. The codification of Kuchipudi into a classical form in the 20th century, which today circulates and is practiced globally within a larger context of classical Indian dance (dominated by women), was shaped by important contributions from master teachers and dancers such as Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastri and Padma Bhushan Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam. The Repertoire of classical Kuchipudi today is made of items drawn from the dance theater form, as well as items from court and temple forms. In addition this repertoire is expanded through new creations by dancers today. The technique of Kuchipudi, like the technique of other classical Indian dance forms- has two main aspects: abstract dance, or nritta, which emphasizes rhythmic aspects of the dance, and natya, in which the poetic, and narrative interpretation through dance is central.

Sandra’s Kuchipudi Rangapravesam (debut) took place in 1991 in Munich. She is trained in Kuchipudi with Ranga Vivekanandan-Barth, Jaya Rama and Vanashree Rao, and Sumathy Kaushal, in Bharatanatyam with Padmini Chari, Arup Ghosh and Malathi Iyengar, and most recently Odissi, with Sharon Lowen.