Teacher
Smt. Sudha Sekhar Devulapalli
Guru Smt Sudha Shekhar Devulapalli. She perfectly fits into the definition of guru in Hinduism, as an imparter of knowledge. She leads by an example with a view to indoctrinate her students the value of discipline, commitment, learning and self development. Training is about developing skill, and teaching is clearly a skill. I think every student and parent of Kalanjali believes that this line holds true for Smt Sudha Devulapalli.
Anyone that has had the opportunity to see her dance fusions or her semi classical composition one would have to wonder on the versatility of various dance forms displayed. That comes from the training that she has acquired in kathak, bharatnatyam and kuchipudi. She began her training in BN and Kathak in Jamshedur Bihar and she completed her Arangetram under the guidance of Smt. Sumati Kaushal. She received diplomas in kathak and bharatnatyam fields of dance from Prayag University in Allahbad. During her short stay in Madras, she also received further tutoring from Padamashri Kalaimaamani Adayar K. Lakshman. She had received advanced training in dance technique, teaching methodology and choreography under guru Dr K. Uma Rama Rao of Hyderabad.
She gave up her career as an IT professional to pursue her passion in teaching Indian classical dance. She has performed in India and abroad before settling down in NJ since 1989. She has had the opportunity to choreograph several beautiful dance dramas such as Padmavati kalyanam for TANA, Sita Swayamvaram, Jaya Deva’s Dasavataram, Padmavati Kalyanam, Meera Ke Giridhar, Four Seasons, atu America itu india , Shyam Sudha Ras, Bharat Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Rati Vilapam, Ramayana, Trinetra and several welcome dances for organizations like TANA and AATA.
About the School
The Kalanjali School of Dance was founded by Sudha Shekhar Devulapalli in May 1997 and has achieved many milestones since its birth. The focus of the teachings is to impart Classical BN techniques and thereby using it as a medium to expose the children to Indian mythology, culture and our traditions. KJ’s motto is dance with a purpose and strongly encourages its students to participate in local charity and fundsraising events such as March of dimess, sofkin.org, Public Libraries etc. Today Sudhaji is proud of her second generation Student teachers who are contributing their time to Kalanjali in training younger students.
Kalanjali has bagged several awards in the semi classical arenas in various dance competitions like the most coveted East Coast Bollywood dance competition Naya Andaz, FIA, Naach Revolution to name a few. A detailed view of Kalanjali’s accomplishments can be found under the Accomplishment Tab.
Kalanajali has also partnered Samved conservatory which is a very effective, diligent exam board established for conducting Indian Classical Arts form exams for the entire North America Continent by senior professors with a long standing experience of minimum 35 to 40 years of teaching and conducting exams in the field of Indian classical music and dance. Kalanjali students are encouraged to take exams not with just the purpose of earning a diploma but also to reach into the depths of the dance form.
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