Sasikala Penumarthi
Kuchipudi transforms storytelling into movement, to teach students about this expressive Indian art form. This fascinating glimpse into an ancient and exotic culture shows how the basic hand gestures, foot movements, and rhythmic syllables used in Kuchipudi Dance, are combined to form human expression through dance.
Speech, song, mime, and dance are used to tell a story or episode from Indian mythology or modern social themes. Sasikala (Say-SEE-ka-lah) Penumarthi is one of the foremost practitioners of classical Indian Kuchipudi dance in the world. You can appreciate the dance by paying attention to the sound and movement that includes hand movements, leg movements, neck movements, eye movements, facial expressions and how they are synchronizing with the music and the rhythm. You can appreciate the culture based on the costume, jewelry and the makeup that the artist is wearing and how the artist is telling a story through dance.
A Georgia 2025 Governor’s Award for Arts and Humanities recipient, Sasikala traveled extensively and performed her craft all over India, America, Canada, Europe, and Russia. Sasikala established a non-profit organization, Academy of Kuchipudi Dance in Atlanta, and continues her pursuits by training her own students, performing, and producing dance dramas, such as Swapna Vijayam (adaptation of Nutcracker into Kuchipudi Style of Dance.)
She teaches at her own studio in Suwanee, Georgia, as an adjunct faculty at Emory University, at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta in Riverdale, Georgia and across Georgia as part of the Georgia Council for the Arts Teaching Artist Roster Activities. Based on the treatise on dance, Performers should follow the etiquette “Wherever the hand moves, there the glance follows; Where the glance goes, the mind follows; Where the mind goes, the mood follows; Where the mood goes, there is Rasa or Emotion.
Disciplines: Dance, Storytelling and Spoken Word, Drama
Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, Professional Development, College students
Core Curriculum: South Indian Classical Dance