MOONDEAVORS
Kuchipudi
The Story of Kuchipudi
Kuchipudi is a famous Indian dance form that originates from the Telugu culture of South India. Kuchipudi was first found in the Natya Sastra, a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts which dates back to 200 BCE. I have been practicing Kuchipudi for over 10 years, and performing it has been, and still is one of the best parts of my life. Out of all the other dance forms, Kuchipudi is the most expressive, where dancers act out auspicious narratives by becoming the characters in the story. Dancers use hastas, or hand gestures, to portray different objects and movements. Watching a performance can be more enjoyable if you too know what certain hastas symbolize, so down below are definitions of the most common hastas used in Kuchipudi!
Kuchipudi Hastas
In Kuchipudi, there are two sets of hastas, "Asamyuktha" and "Samyuktha". "Asamyuktha" hastas are one-handed and "Samyuktha" hastas are formed using both hands.
Asamyuktha Hastas
One-handed Hand Gestures
Pataaka
Indian Flag
Tripathaka
One-Third of the Indian Flag
Kartarimukha
A Face of Scissors
Ardhachandra
Moon
Arala
Bent
Sukatunda
Parrot's Beak
Mushthi
Fist
Sikhara
Peak
Kapittha
Elephant (Head)
Katakamukha
Woman
Suchi
Needle
Padmakosa
Lotus Bud
Sarparsira
The Head of a Snake
Mrigasirsha
Animal Head/Face
Langula
Tail
Alapadma
Lotus
Chatura
Square
Bhramara
Bee
Hamsasya
Swan
Hamsapaksha
Bridge
Mukula
Flower Bud
Samdamsa
Biting of Pinching Together
(It is more of a movement between two hastas than a single hasta)
Urnanabha
Spider
Tamrachuda
Any Bird's Head
Samyuktha Hastas
Double-handed Gestures
Anjali
Salutation
Kapota
Pigeon
Kartaka
To be together
Swastika
Cross
Kataka Vardhamanaka
Coronation
Utsanga
Embrace
Nishada
Hunters
(Used to symbolize people when telling a story)
Dola
Swing
(Used when the dancer walks, in a graceful way)
Pushpaputa
Holding
(Usually flowers)
Matsya
Fish
Gajadanta
Carrying someone/something
Vardhamana
Opening Doors/Windows
My Software
Mudras for Kuchipdi
One of my favorite things to do is perform in front of an audience, telling the stories of Hindu mythology through dance. Every performance has a story behind it, as evidenced by the many gestures that can be made, each symbolizing something different. It can be a sign, it can be an object, it can be an emotion... it literally can be anything.
What I have realized, through hundreds of performances on stage, is that there is a gap in understanding the stories I am portraying through each performance. It is a cultural gap, as only the people who were aware of Hindu mythology before, can understand the meaning behind my performance, but those people only make up a very small percentage of my audience. What about the rest of them? Well, this inspired me to create my app, where through a recording of any dance, the software can interpret the meaning of the dance and give background to the story behind it.
I named the software "Mudras for Kuchipudi", and the app is still a work in progress.
The Creation of My App
the steps to success!
Data Collection and Storage
I have to collect a dataset of dance videos, including metadata about the dance, such as its name, style, and any relevant descriptions.
Store the videos and metadata in a database or cloud storage.
Preprocessing
Extract frames from the dance videos to convert them into a series of images.
Preprocess and clean the data, such as resizing images and normalizing pixel values.
AI Model for Pose Estimation
Utilize a pre-trained AI model for pose estimation (OpenPose) to extract the key points of dancers in each frame.
Natural Language Processing
Utilize NLP techniques to generate a description, meaning, and story based on the recognized dance style and the extracted key points.
You can use libraries like NLTK or spaCy for text processing.
Database Interaction + API Development
Store the extracted information (dance style, meaning, story) in your database along with the video metadata.
Create a RESTful API using a web framework like Flask or Django to expose the functionality.
panel.
Deployment + Integration on Front-end
Deploy your backend on a server or cloud platform
Develop the frontend of your app, which sends video data to the backend API and displays the dance interpretation.
