Early Influences

Mrinalini Sadananda hails from a family of artists. Her father Vinjamuri Parthasarathy Iyengar and mother Smt. Kamala Devi nurtured each of their 7 children into one art form or another. Her father was a well-known lawyer by profession but had a great love of the violin. Her mother was a dedicated housewife and an accomplished violinist in her own right.

Mrinalini was introduced to dance at a very young age. Over the years, her Gurus (teachers) have included her own sister Mrs. Hemalatha NaramhaChari, Burra Subramanya Sastry, Chinta Raddha KrishnaMurty, Adinarayana Sarma, Mahankali Surya Narayana, SathyaPriya Ramana and Dr. Vempati Chinna Sathyam. She feels strongly that their dedication to this art has molded her in to what she is today. In addition, her Drama teacher Sri Mandapati Ramalingeswara Rao helped her understand the importance of facial expressions for which she is very well known.

The Land of Opportunity

Mrinalini is married to Dr. K Sadananda, the son of a great Telugu and Sanskrit scholar Sri. Kuntimaddi Seshasarma and JayaLakshmi. He has always supported her passion for dance and encouraged her to continue refining the art within her after emigrating to the United States. She began by performing extensively across the United States.

About 20 years ago she took on the mantle of Guru and it is this role she has flourished. Most importantly she has continued the tradition of her own Gurus by passing this art to countless youngsters. In this endeavor she began as a volunteer teacher for 7 years at Gandhi Memorial Center and for 7 years at the Chinmaya Mission, both in the metropolitan Washington DC area. In 1993, she established Kalamandapam as an institute dedicated to dance and music. As a vehicle for her own creative impetus and as a means to motivate her students, she has put on several dance ballets.

The Style: Kuchipudi

Kuchipudi is one of the forms of Indian classical dance and has been in existence for at least 500 years. This style is based on Natya Sastra, or the science of Dance written by Bharata in 400 BC. Traditionally, there are two forms of dances performed: Natya Mela and Nattuvamela. Natya Mela is performed by both men and women, often in the form of a drama and traditionally, with less rhythm. Nattuvamela is a dance done by women, generally taking the form of a solo performance; rhythm is an important component and the Nattuvangam or beat is done mostly by men.

Great gurus like Vedantam Lakshmi Narayana, Chinta Krishna Murthy, and others enriched this style. Dr. Vempati Chinna Sathyam added more ballets and broadened the scope for solo performances and brought this style to the international platform. Most of the dances are of a devotional nature and a strong under current of Bhakthi, or devotion, underlies most of the compositions. A key feature in many dance drama's and even some individual items in Kuchipidu is Vachikabhinayam, or spoken dialogue included in the song, in which the artist mimes the words as the character in the story.