Founder president of Natraj Music and Dance Academy (NMDA) Battina Vikram Goud has demanded the inclusion of Kuchipudi dance in the school syllabus and filling up of dance teacher posts.
He went on a hunger strike near the Gandhi statue opposite the GVMC Office at Asilametta in this regard on Saturday.
Mr. Vikram Goud sat on fast after garlanding a portrait of Lord Nataraja, Siddhendra Yogi and bowing to noted dance teacher and Sangeet Natak Akademy award winner Pasumarthi Seetharamayya. Guinness Record holder and researcher on folk art S. Murali Babu, noted dance teachers Tekumalla Syamala and Lalit Kumar Gupta, author of the ‘Gateway of Kuchipudi' Munikuntla Sambasiva and noted film writer and actor Kasi Viswanath were among those who sat at the dharna camp for sometime to express solidarity with Mr. Vikram Goud.
While welcoming the decision to introduce a chapter on ‘Kuchipudi' at the IIIT and IIT, NMDA Chairman Rekhala Krishna Goud wondered as to what purpose it would serve when no steps were taken to introduce the dance form at the school-level. Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry from Telugu University and Sudipta Bannerjee of Andhra University participated.
Noted Kuchipudi dancer and teacher Shoba Naidu, film actor Manju Bhargavi and dance teacher A.B. Bala Kondala Rao expressed their solidarity over the phone to Mr. Vikram Goud.
