Popular Kuchipudi Dancer Nataraja Ramakrishna who introduced Perni Dance Form died

Popular kuchipudi classical dancer Nataraja Ramakrishna known for reviving and introducing Andhra Natyam and Perini Shivatandavam, died on 7 June 2011.

Ramakrishna was born in Bali, Indonesia, where his parents had migrated from East Godavari. The family later returned to India and Ramakrishna started showing interest in classical dance forms. At the age of 18, he was given the title of Nataraja in Nagpur, which got added to his name Ramakrishna. His first dance teacher was Sukhdev Kartak in Nagpur.

He is well known for introducing the dance form of Perini Shivatandavam which highlighted the role of warriors under King Ganapathi Devudu of the Kakatiya dynasty. He was also credited with the revival of the Andhra Natyam dance form, a devotional temple dance tradition performed in Andhra Pradesh for over 400 years until it went virtually extinct.

During his sixty years of continuous study on Kuchipudi dance forms, Ramakrishna authored 40 books on the subject, and trained many dancers besides writing and choreographing highly acclaimed dance dramas. He had also served as Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992. He also received a doctorate from the Andhra University and a Bharata Kala Prapoorna apart from the NTR State Award.