Namma artiste in Namo’s honour
Danseuse Mayuri Upadhya has several reasons to celebrate this season
By : namita gupta
Update: 2015-05-29 23:20 GMT
She lives true to the meaning of her name Mayuri (meaning peacock) and is going places. Mayuri Upadhya who has been following her passion for the art form of dance, recently choreographed a contemporary dance performance at Hannover Messe for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Germany.
After participating in many national and international dance festivals, she is now busy judging Kannada Dancing Star 2. We speak to the curly-locked artistic director of the Bengaluru-based Nritarutya Dance Academy on her recent trip to Germany, her choreography for Bollywood films and judging a talent show on television.
“We were in Germany last month as we were commissioned to perform at Hannover Messe for Modi’s Make in India show. I created a mix of traditional and modern representation of folk rituals amalgamated it with different technologies. Ours was a 15-minute performance just before Modi’s speech. I choreographed the performance for 96 dancers across India. Modi also tweeted about our show and complimented us on his Twitter page.
I’m still reeling under its success and only recently I received a Make in India gift, a beautiful watch from the government,” says the dancer. Mayuri seems to be on a roll with the completion of dance choreography for a Bollywood film. “It’s a big Bollywood banner and I was fortunate to have got a surprise call from them. The best part of this work was that we had complete creative liberty on our work. All our dances were seamlessly integrated into the script. I worked with 80 dancers of Nritarutya. The theme was Indian contemporary, but I can’t reveal more at this stage as the film is due for release only next year. My work is over, but there’s a lot of post production work in progress.”
Photographs of Mayuri with actors Priyamani and V Ravichandran have been doing the rounds on social networking sites. Ask Mayuri on her experience as the judge on a regional channel and she states, “We have two more episodes and the finale is on June 20. It’s a different canvas for me, being on the judge’s seat on a popular television show. The exposure is enormous. I’ve been in the dance fraternity for long and everyone knows me, but in terms of mass appeal, television has a bigger reach. Also the camaraderie I share with Priyamani and Ravichandran is warm and friendly. I’m now looking at getting serious, skilled professional dancers and planning larger musical productions.”
Before we sign off, we prod if she likes to go on world musical tours with her husband, musician Raghu Dixit and she admits, “ Raghu is leaving on a UK tour this month, but I plan to join him towards the last leg. I want to see the Moulin Rouge. I think travel is one of the best escapes for a dancer as it refuels you.”