Koppaka Sri Sreshta, a Kuchipudi exponent, who has brought laurels to the city by bagging a national-level Nandi Award at the recent International Dance Day celebrations held in New Delhi. will now receive the ‘Pride of Bharat’ award in New Delhi, through a virtual event on August 15.
Barely 14, Sri Sreshta has already given over 275 performances across the country, including a couple of them abroad, and won a good number of awards and recognitions. She was drawn to Kuchipudi right from her childhood and started giving stage performances from a young age. Seeing her interest, her parents, admitted her to Chandana Dance Academy (Vizag) and she trained under the tutelage of Guru Kuchipudi Nagachandana.
Apart from performing on various platforms in the city, Sri Sreshta had performed in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Eluru, Annavaram, Ramanarayanam, Attili Subrahmanyeswara Swamy temple, Sri Shirdi Sai Baba temple at Shirdi in Maharashtra and Cuttack. She had also performed at an international event in Malaysia in 2022. She joined a 4,000-strong troupe in a group dance event at Gachchibowli stadium in Hyderabad and earned a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records.
“We initiated her into dance, when she was in her Std. II. She started giving stage performances a year later. During the Covid-19 lockdown, she used her free time to hone her skills in dance through online classes. She had also participated in the All India Social Distancing Online National Solo Dance Contest 2020, Season 3, and won the second prize,” says her father KGN Murthy.
She secured the first prize for her ‘tarangam’ (plate dance) at the Asian Countries Cultural Conclave held in Bangkok, Thailand. The other awards received by her include: Visakha Bala Mitra Award-2023, Gaja Lakshmi Award from Vijaya Madhavi Seva Samskruthika Academy at a national-level dance festival in 2022, Sri Garuda excellence award from Sri Kanipaka Vinayaka Utsav-2022 at a national level festival, Natya Kala Nandi from Akshaya Seva Sanskrutika Association and the ‘Best Dancer Award from Magic Book of World Records’.
“I was inspired by our culture and traditions in my childhood, and will strive to uphold them through this dance form,” says Sri Sreshta.
Published - July 30, 2024 04:05 pm IST
