Kuchipudi doyenne passes away

Hyderabad: One of the outstanding luminaries of Kuchipudi dance, senior guru Uma Rama Rao passed away here in the early hours of Saturday. The art stands bereft of its last senior guru. Though in her eighties, her vivacity, vibrance and graciousness belied her age.

Always full of enthusiasm, she was held in reverence by her students. Her immense erudition - she held lightly, especially in the field of Prabhandams, Yakshaganas etc., the Pallaki Seva Prabhandam of Shahaji, the Maratha King of Tanjore, being one of her favourite subjects.

Guru Uma was born in 1938 in Visakhapatnam in the ‘Vaddadi’ family of distinguished scholars. She had the privilege of learning from the great Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastri, who would come to her residence to teach Abhinaya. Padmasri Nataraja Ramakrishna was also her guru.

From a tender age, she learnt both Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Her luminous beauty attracted offers of film roles too! Along with her sister Sumathy Kaushal, she had given several performances. She taught nuances of Kuchipudi to actress Bhanupriya for K Vishwanath's Swarnakamalam for the song ‘Koluvai Unnade’.

In 1985, she set up Lasya Priya Institute devoted to Kuchipudi dance. She was the first Head of the Department of Dance in Telugu University. Her immense contribution to Kuchipudi can be discerned in the fact of creating many renowned present day gurus like Alekhya, Vanaja Uday, Rama Devi, Bala Sreekala, Anupama Kylash and others.

Until her last day, she was working on the lyrics of Saint Vengamamba of Tirupati with keen interest. Among many awards, she also received Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2003 from the then President A P J Abdul Kalam.