Indira Akka has been my teacher for 18 years. She has always pushed me to do my best in all areas in dance. Her amazing attention to detail and complete focus on your performance during each class is remarkable. She gives you her full attention and the patience to help you perfect each movement. This is very rare to find such a teacher. I am very blessed to have such care and guidance. Through all the hard work she is able to share the joy and beauty of the art form and the meanings of the songs, thus making each class rewarding both physically and mentally. It is truly a remarkable experience being in Akkas class.
There is lot to pen about indira akka as she is a wonderful person. She has oodles of warmth, affection and caring attitude to one and all. She is adventurous, spiritual and one can get emotionally attached to her. My association with her has taught me great values be it in dance or to grow individually. The aura she carries around makes the whole place very divine and memorable. One will easily savour every moment spent with her.
As a dancer one needs to spend time with her to know about the vast amount of knowledge and control she has about dance. Her Abhinaya in particular has always fascinated me to a great extent. My Guru Smt. Narmada was always of the opinion that she is next to kalanidhi maami. When she is dancing she electrifies the whole audience with her excellent and perfect Nritta and at the same time captivates mind and heart of the individual with her soul stirring Abhinaya. She is a treat to watch as she gets thru the skin of the character with such finesse. She conducted lots of workshops in Bangalore which saw lots of dancers seeking her help in Abhinaya who had such enriching experience and gave heaps of praises. Having grown up with Indira akka as my idol it was truly dream come true for me to learn dance from her. One great thing about akka which I want to share is she is brilliant and perfect in her sadhana (practice) as she is on the stage.
Each individual can be a great dancer but not performers but Indira akka is not just a great dancer but a true performer. I wish the very best for her and am sure she brings out the same shine and spark from every individual who seek her help.
I’m a drama artist based in Italy, I used to play classical and contemporary western drama in theatre and teaching acting techniques to group of adults.
Since 2006, I joined Guru Adyar K Lakshman who guided me in an excellent way. In 2007, I came for the third time to India and I felt I must go deeply in the expression section, in abhinaya, maybe because of my drama background, so my guru send me to Smt Kalanidhi Narayanan, who then told me to go to one of her student: Indira Kadambi.
I remember me and my friend Isabella were astonished watching Indira Akka showing everything so clear, she used to say: “Expression are universal, doesn’t matter that you come from Europe or any other country…..”. Then I lived in India for one year with support scholarship from University of Milan and I had the opportunity to study dance in depth. That period was so great. At the end of the year I had my debut performance I choose a Kshetrayya padam. I thought it was maybe to difficult for me, but Akka said: “there’s nothing easy in dance, everything can be more or less interesting it depends on how you do it” and there itself, in the kitchen of her house, she showed me the first line of popular todi varnam “rupamu jochi”: I cried for the beauty and intensity of her expression, I thought I was able to see Shiva.
Finally came the date of the program and she asked me to go in the morning for the last time before the program: as usual we had Akka’s special ginger tea, then we did it once and before leaving she gifted me with a beautiful silk sari. It was her way of encouraging me that I’ll never forget. The program went on very well and all the public was so impressed by my abhinaya! Then I realized how her strict way of teaching was so useful!
I think I met a great artist, Indira Akka is really a good teacher and mostly she is a wonderful person, I can go whenever I want to her house and the door is always open and she is always ready to talk with me about programs, dancers, items or music too, because her husband is a great singer, so its also very common to find him practicing or giving class, and the house became a magic place made of a melodious voice and a really powerful dancer.
I learnt dancing in kalakshetra. I was looking forward to learn Abhinaya from a teacher but didnt know whom to approach. Ms Leela Samson suggested me Indira Akka. The very 1st class i had with her i knew she was the best teacher i could have .Indira akka is a fantastic teacher. Every class i go i certainly discover a different aspect of abhinaya. Akka would concentrate even on a tiny nuance which would improvise the abhinaya so much. After learning just one padam I realized how much my abhinaya had improved. I have been learning from akka since 2006. Every time I visit Chennai, I grab the opportunity to learn something from akka. On the personal front, Akka is a very practical, youthful and adventurous lady who enjoys life to the fullest. I feel very comfortable in her presence. I am proud to have a teacher like Indira akka. " Akka you are an inspiration".
Indira Akka, A Great Abhinaya Teacher!
Abhinaya in bharathanatyam is an aspect that is extremely vast. There is always room for improvement regardless of which level a dancer is in.
I started knowing the deeper nuances of abhinaya when I came for Indira Akka’s abhinaya classes. Her technique of teaching helps students learn abhinaya correctly (i.e. it’s not over or underdone). She uses conversations as the medium and would tell us to say the conversations as we enacted what we were trying to portray. She would sometimes even make us do the action in real life to enhance the expression.
I also liked how Indira akka is a perfectionist. She would not let us go until that particular expression was expressed correctly. Just seeing her doing each expression, would give us the inspiration to strive for even more. It is very hard to get praise from akka, but when we do finally get the praise, we know that we have done it well and the expression has been executed clearly!
Indira akka is a great teacher and I’m so proud to have an abhinaya teacher like her!
She’s been more than a dance teacher for us. We had our tedious dance classes with a strict teacher and a joyful travel with a friendly buddy. Looking back, it is because of those tedious sessions I can still dance well. Love you Miss- Cheers to our beautiful dance teacher- Indira :)
"I take a great deal of pride in writing this about a truly dedicated, and passionate teacher, Mrs. Indira Kadambi who is completely in love with the idea of teaching others how to dance.
I was fortunate enough to be a student of this very accomplished dancer at a young age and still consider her be the most responsible and professional dance teacher that I have ever come across.She strives to be the example of responsibility.
She made each one of us feel important and respected by paying attention and correcting us individually, helping us to gradually build our techniques and got the best out of us. As far as my knowledge goes all her students that I know still continue to dance including me or remained passionate about dance as good audience and judges.
She possess all the traits of a good teacher (punctuality, experience, patience, creativity) and the most important one is that of an ability to inspire.
Her classes were fun, hard, easy, and informative and complete.... All in all this great human being is truly inspirational."
I think there is not so many teachers can teach as god as Indira akka. I feel I was very lucky that I learned from her Abhinaya. Abhinaya was not my favourite part of dance but she turned it as my most favourite part. The padam that she taught me is my treasure. I deeply thank to her pure dedication.
"Learning from Indira Akka has been an inspiring and uplifting experience. I feel like she teaches so much more than just the technique of the dance style. She has taught me how to develop the attitude of a dancer, how to give life to every movement, and most importantly, how to fall in love with dance."
Indira akka has been my inspiration for good art since the first time I saw her dancing. I vividly remember my first experience witnessing her rehearsal at Guru Smt.Savithri Jagannatha Rao's dance studio....Fortunately I also had oppurtunities to take lessons from akka. Her abhinaya classes are 100% learning time. Every idea she taught was so involving and she would patiently make us repeat it until we are comfortable with it. By making us work on new ideas or stylization,she would coach us to think deeply and improvise. Her classes have always been invaluable for me. Through the years I have come to know akka as a good friend. A very warm and fun loving person with an open mind who is eager to help her friends and build lasting friendship with her students.
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