About Bharatanatyam and our humble beginnings....

Sri Vidya Dance School comes from the humble beginnings of Sri Vidya School of Music and Dance which was founded by Dr. Indira S Rao who established the School of Music and Dance in 1973 in Hyderabad, India. The school conducted many dance ballets, competitions, and invited many eminent legends from the Classical Dance Community.
​Bharathanatyam has its origin from the South Indian temples and the essence of the 4 vedas namely Rig veda, Yajur veda, Sama veda and Atharvana veda. The Bharathanatyam is also called as the Panchama veda since the natya sastra evolved from the 4 vedas. This is an art performed in the temples and palaces in praise of god in front of the deities.
​Like all major Classical Dance forms of India, Bharathanatyam also follows the 3 major concepts of performances called Nritta, Nritya and Natya. In Nritta, the artist depicts the Rhythmic aspects of dance, in Nritya, the artist portrays the Expression/Abinaya aspects of dance and in Natya the artist incorporates the nritta and nritya aspects and build a whole team performance. And hence the Bharatanatyam got its name itself, where Bha-ra-ta means Bhavam(the expression) Ragam(The music) and Talam(The rhythm) and Natyam means Performance. So the Bharathanatyam means the bundle of Music, Expression and Dance presented in the praise of the God.

Artistic Director, Smt. Akila Rao

PC: Vikram Karthik

Smt. Akila Rao started learning Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of Guru Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry starting at the age of 7. By the age of 16, she completed her arangetram (Graduation) and performed in numerous ballets and All-India Dance competitions in various cities in India. Arangetram is the beginning of a lifetime of dance and Akila was fortunate to continue learning variety of dance items from renowned Gurus including The Dhananjayans, The Charis and other experienced teachers from the Kalakshetra bani. In addition to learning dance, she also learnt Indian classical music from D. Seshachari, one of the famed Hyderabad Brothers. 
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As Akila pursued her education in Architecture, she was able to continue dancing which shows that the love for art and architecture is a journey of life itself. During her brief stay in Malaysia, Akila was fortunate to perform at various programs with renowned dancer/choreographer Ajit Bhaskaran Das and his troupe. Over the years after moving to the US, Akila has taught and performed in many cities across the US. She has collaborated with numerous charitable organizations and performed for cultural events for fundraising and to spread the value of this great ancient art.
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Smt. Akila Rao now lives in Cupertino, CA with her husband and two sons.She continues to train and teach students of all ages.  The goal of her school is to impart the traditional way of the Guru-shishya parampara teaching where the students learn the traditional theory and practice of Bharatanatyam dance form along with life values of self-respect, discipline and traditions, and most importantly, carry the passion for dance throughout their lifetime.

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