NRITYAJYOTI FESTIVAL: VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2025
Virtual
Organization: Foundation for Developed India
NRITYAJYOTI FESTIVAL: VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2025
Organised by
Foundation for Developed India
20th September, 2025
Call for Papers
Concept Note:
The performing art field is made of extremely creative artists who express through their art by performing, teaching and creating. Kuchipudi is not behind in terms of scholarship apart from creating the above. Kuchipudi, as a performance tradition, represents a rich repository of navigating shifts in historicity, innovations, performance techniques as well as emotion. The works of early scholars of Kuchipudi starting from Dr. Anuradha Jonnalagadda till the recent academic works of Dr. Harshita Kamath and Dr. Rumya Sree Purecha are recognised internationally. Tradition of performance on the stage also brings forth a very poignant opportunity to engage with the tradition through thought and experience, perhaps this is why one of the primary modes of dealing with performance in theory is to engage with its capability of appealing to the sentiments of the audience. Kuchipudi performance provides a vast space for such explorations due to its history and developments as a narratorial dance form, maybe even conversational with the viewers. While discussing the various moments of Kuchipudi, one comes across the politics of development that a performance tradition goes through, especially a form as old as ours. Within this very history, we might come across the developmental strategies of Kuchipudi practitioners to incorporate different Bhakti texts; shifting patrons; a constant restructuring of the performance grammar that Kuchipudi goes through, things that attribute Kuchipudi its vibrant beauty that we see on the stage today. This conference will voice the history of Kuchipudi and also the allied art forms that have been discussed less on the social forum, YouTube, which becomes accessible for international audiences and participants too. This conference aims to bring together works of youngsters who are pursuing Kuchipudi not only through performance but also through academia.
The conference aims to explore largely three arenas of exploration in the performance of Kuchipudi. We invite papers that investigate, while not being confined to, the following themes:
History of Kuchipudi and Parallel Arts:
Kuchipudi has a very long past, beginning from the Bhagvata Mela Natakam to the modern day solo repertoire. This panel seeks to examine the developments within the performance tradition of Kuchipudi and the fields associated with this particular form of performance.
Gender, Literature and Performance:
One of the main features of Kuchipudi performance is the internality of characterisation. Be it male Bhagavtas donning the female attire and performing Satyabhama (and other female characters) or the performer experiencing the Sringara and/or Madhura Bhakti verses from various Kritis, Padams and Javalis literature or the oral traditions of sabdams becomes the spine of Kuchipudi performance. This panel seeks to explore how the literature influences the sentimentality, choreography and characterisation of Kuchipudi throughout different periods of Indian, specifically Bhakti literature.
History of the Performance Space:
Performing art, be it of any kind, does not and can not exist in a vacuum. It is constructed with the simultaneous construction of the performance space as well, be it through economic support or political patronisation. In an art form that sees its genesis from amidst the audience, kuchipudi that was performed in the farm lands to its journey today to proscenium, it has culled history. This panel seeks to examine how the performance space gets constructed with various developments in history, be it pre-colonial empires, British Raj, or post independence history.
Submission guidelines:
- Abstracts should be a minimum of 500 words.
- Please include 5 relevant keywords along with the abstract.
- Authors must include an ‘Author Bio’ outlining their academic qualifications, history of learning dance (or any adjoining art forms), previous work, etc.
- Full length papers must adhere to Chicago Manual Style (CMS) guide for footnotes, referencing and citations.
- Word limit for the full length papers is 4000-5000 words.
- Selected participants will be sent a followup email with details of full length paper submission and fee payment details.
- Presenters for the conference will be selected by the committee. Their decision will be final.
- Registration/Publication fee: INR 1,000; to be paid after the selection of abstract.
- Abstracts are to be submitted on the following google form:
https://forms.gle/AgU2PiiudRvBowFW8
Acceptance guidelines:
Authors of accepted abstracts will be contacted in two categories:
- For both presentation in the conference as well as for publication.
- For publication only.
- Regardless of the acceptance relayed to participants, registration/publication fee remains the same for all accepted authors.
Publication information:
We aim to compile and publish the papers presented in this conference, among others, as an edited volume under the title ‘Kuchipudi Now - Voices from the Past and Future’. (Editorial board and publisher details to be finalised). Final details of publication will be communicated with the authors as soon as developments in this foreground take place.
Important Dates:
- Submission deadline for abstracts: 15th July, 2025; 11.59 PM IST
- Intimation of selected Papers: 30th July 2025
- Registration fees payment deadline : 10th August, 2025; 11:59 PM IST
- Deadline for full length paper submission: 1st September, 2025
- Date of the conference: 20th September, 2025
For further information, contact: nrityajyotifestival@gmail.com
Organising committee:
Abhinaya Nagajothy: Kuchipudi Artist and researcher; Secretary, Foundation for Developed India
Ms. Priyanka Nirupam: Assistant Professor, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi
Harsha: Post-graduate student, University of Delhi
https://forms.gle/AgU2PiiudRvBowFW8
Abhinaya Nagajothy
