Kuchipudi has lost its theatrical soul. An 85-year-old guru is trying to bring it back

Master Rattiah reserves his sharpest rebuke for dance that chooses spectacle over rigour. “Decoration,” he said, with scathing contempt. At 85, he has earned the right to be exacting. Pasumarthi Rattiah Sarma – Master Rattiah to generations of dancers – is among the few remaining masters of the nearly extinct Yakshagana form of Kuchipudi that is a complex alloy of theatre, dance, music and poetics.

For Rattiah, Kuchipudi is not merely movement: the dancer must sing, recite poetry, deliver dialogue and inhabit a character. The form he learnt as a young man demanded all of this, as well as the stamina for punishing footwork and the control to make all that effort invisible.

“I want controlled energy like a spring, not force,” he said. “The face and body should at all times show lalityam (grace), no matter how much effort you put in. Remember that the landscape of Kuchipudi dance is never flat.”

This month, in recognition of his mastery, Rattiah was awarded the fellowship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. It is an acknowledgement of a tradition that has changed dramatically in his lifetime. The Kuchipudi that made its way from the eponymous village in coastal Andhra to metropolitan stages across India has become, for the...

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