A special arangetram
The night before his Bharatanatyam arangetram, Avya Poddatoori was rolling around in bed, unable to sleep, AirPods tucked in his ears, listening to every song he had to dance to, in front of over 700 people, in what would be a solo performance of over two hours. “I have big stage fright. But I’m pretty good at hiding it,” he says.
The day of the arangetram, July 29, 2023, at the Hofmann Theater in Walnut Creek, was poignant for the Poddatoori family. It was the second death anniversary of Avya’s grandmother, his mom’s mom, who passed away from cancer in 2021.
She loved to watch Avya dance and often took care of him when Vineela Poddatoori, Avya’s mom, was on call as an OB/GYN resident at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Avya’s grandmother was a second mom to him. When she was sick, he would dance for her almost every day. “Whenever I danced, it was for her. She was always watching me,” says Avya.
“The mind must be empty”
“A Bharatanatyam arangetram can often be a basic recital, where the dancer gets up and does the whole set of dances and everybody is pleased, if not impressed,” says Katherine Kunhiraman, co-founder of Kalanjali Dances of India and Avya’s first dance teacher.
Avya made a few mistakes during his varnam, the main piece in a Bharatanatyam recital. He was thinking about what the next movement was, what he had to execute. “I realized I’m making all these mistakes because I’m trying too hard, mentally.”
It was when he remembered the words of Shyamjit Kiran, his current teacher and a graduate of Kalakshetra, that “when dancing, the mind must be empty,” that Avya felt a transformation occur. “I just gotta let my body take over,” he says, and “I did it. It worked out perfectly.”
“I saw that kid, maybe 10 minutes into the varnam, transform,” Katherine Kunhiraman says. “Up till then he was like, ‘Okay, this is almost over and now I can go back to basketball.’ But then he transformed and he became the performer. It was the most magical thing. That’s what we look for to happen in an arangetram.”
Avya says “I feel more confident and strong with the art. I feel like there’s a lot more growth I could achieve.”
A boy from Orinda
Avya Poddatoori grew up in Oakland where demographics were 34.5% white, 28.0% black and 16.8% Asian. In 2022 the family moved to Orinda where the demographics were 69.9% white and 14.8% Asian. The soon-to-be 17-year-old Miramonte High School student would tell his mom that he didn’t need to identify as Indian, he was fine being American.
With his effortless cool, summer pool parties, and upcoming position as senior class vice president, Avya was the kid everyone wanted to be around.
“My friends know me as a basketball player who loves fashion,” he says with a laugh. His favorite pair of shoes are Nike Dunk Lows in white and blue.
Vineela Poddatoori, Avya’s mom, grew up further north in Benicia in a Telugu-speaking home. Connecting with her South Indian heritage was important to her. She started learning Bharatanatyam at a young age.
“I was socially very awkward in high school,” she says. “I was totally not a cool kid. That I have a child like that is very weird to me.”
While Vineela’s three younger children were less resistant to being culturally Indian, it wasn’t the same for Avya. “He’d tell me ‘I don’t want this identity that you have.’”
Breaking a mold
Yet since the age of 7, Avya has been learning Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form from Tamil Nadu that is dominated by women, in India and abroad. In a dance form where the dancer is required to portray both masculine and feminine roles, Avya Poddatoori is one of the few young men in the U.S. learning this art.
Avya jokes that because his mom did not give birth to a girl the first time, she forced him to join Bharatanatyam class.
“I used to hate it. Oh my god, hate it! [It was] physically draining, mentally draining,” he says. “But once you get to this point, where the movements just flow in your body, you just enjoy the music and the movements. You just gotta push through.”
Katherine Kunhiraman, who along with husband K.P. Kunhiraman, taught Avya’s mother, says, “It took a little bit more effort to hold him on course than with the girls.” Avya would attend dance classes between sports games and training.”
Few male performers
“He didn’t tell anyone he danced,” says Vinny Poddatoori, Avya’s dad. “He was playing basketball very successfully. And kids at that younger age, especially in middle school, [are] tough.”
It would upset Avya if his parents put up flyers about his performances.
“He didn’t want me to talk to his friends about it. He didn’t want to talk to anybody about it,” his mom said.
Avya wasn’t worried about being teased or going to dance class with girls—it was more about not seeing more male dancers representing Bharatanatyam. Things changed a year into his dance journey when he started taking virtual lessons from Shyamjit Kiran and his dance partner Viraja, graduates of the Kalakshetra Foundation, who were based in Chennai.
He would spend summers in India with the dance duo and during the school year Avya would learn virtually from them and Katherine Kunhiraman as well.
In his classes, Avya was the only boy and often felt lonely. He considered Bharatanatyam to be a feminine art form, something only girls did.
“But after I saw Shyam Anna, it really changed me. I’m like, Oh! We can do this too,” Avya says. “I was able to find this different side that resonates more with me. As a male who plays basketball, who’s an athlete, I felt like wow, this is powerful.”
Basketball to Bharatanatyam
Family members were initially worried when Avya continued learning Bharatnatyam. It was cute when he was younger, they’d say, but why is he still doing it at 10? Is this going to be a career?
Vineela and Vinny were both supportive of Avya’s continued interest in dance.
“I played a lot of sports. I don’t regret anything. But the one thing I wish I had the opportunity to be exposed to was classical dance and singing. I grew up in an environment where that wasn’t there,” his dad said.
“Boys are supposed to do sports or mridangam in the Indian community, and in the American community, boys may do music, but they very rarely do that,” Katherine Kunhiraman says. “There haven’t been a lot of men who dance.”
“Dance is like a meditation”
People think “if you learn dance, you will walk like a female,” says Shyamjit Kiran.
In Bharatanatyam, the dancer has to portray both male and female roles and embody those characters. “Seeing that a male dancer is acting like a female, [audiences] feel ‘you know he’s a male. Why is he acting like that?’”
For Avya, dance is like meditation. “When I get angry, or when I’m stressed out, the things that really calm me down the most are basketball and dancing,” Avya says.
When Avya began preparing for his arangetram, Viraja and Shyamjit Kiran came to stay with the Poddatoori family for the last two months of training. Dancing 5 to 6 hours a day in preparation for an arangetram is not easy but Avya found himself exploring things he’d never felt before.
“I think I’m falling in love with it even more,” he says. He also developed a deeper bond with Shyamjit Kiran. “Shyam Anna is like my older brother. He’s everything to me. He’s my hair stylist. He’s my doctor. He does everything for me.”
Leaving a comfort zone
One summer afternoon when Avya had his close friends over for a pool party, Shyamjit Kiran encouraged Avya to perform one of his arangetram pieces. “I was so scared. I did not want to do that,” says Avya. “Shyam Anna has a way of pushing me outside my comfort zone. They’ve never seen the dance side of me. They were really shocked. In a good way.”
Avya’s closest friends were hyped and excited to see him perform. Their plan was to bring printouts of Avya’s face to put on a stick and wave around with Golden State Warriors clappers. Shyamjit Kiran told them how to behave appropriately at an arangetram.
“They got scared,” laughs Avya.
After the arangetram, Avya didn’t dance for two months. He was struggling to find a way to fit dance into his life after his debut. Viraja and Shyamjit Kiran had left on a tour of the U.S. before returning to Chennai. The lack of intense daily practice left a void. Avya reached out to Nava Dance Theater to join their ensemble but was told he needed to be 18 or older.
A budding dance career
Avya auditioned for performances in Pleasant Hill and Tampa Bay, Fla., where he participated in Rudram Dance Company’s show, Once Upon a Time, that involved a large ensemble of dancers performing a Bharatanatyam version of Disney fairytales. Avya played the role of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
In preparation for his role as the Beast, Avya would practice until 2 a.m. during rehearsals. Vineela would have to stop him and ensure he was getting enough sleep. “I had so much fun doing that. I found that love for something.”
Performing with a friend Vidyuth Pasumarthi, another male student of Viraja and Shymajit Kiran, was a plus. “It’s so nice having a dancer the same age and gender as me who’s going through the same things that I’ve been experiencing,” says Avya.
Avya started dancing again every day. Vineela says “This is a kid last year, who was like, ‘When I’m done with my arangetram, I’m done. I’m done, Mom. This is it.’ That’s literally what he said to me. And I’m like, ‘Fine, do whatever you want.’ Since then, I can’t get him to stop dancing.”
Vineela recalls hearing the song Barso Re from the 2007 movie Guru blasting from Avya’s room. When she asked him what was going on with this music, Avya shooed her out. “It gets me into the zone. I’m studying,” he said.
Avya started watching Telugu movies as soon as they came out. When the Poddatoori family would watch a new release together, Avya would tell Vineela he’d already seen it.
“Who is this kid?” Vineela says. “Something has changed in him. I’m so glad he’s embracing [his culture].”
Since learning of Avya’s interest and commitment Bharatanatyam, his wider group of friends have been very supportive. “It’s been great,” he says, “and now everyone knows that I do this.”
Heading into his senior year in high school and college, Avya sees dance as a major part of his life and intends to study dance in college. However, few university dance programs have a world component.
In the past few months, Avya has begun training in modern and hip-hop dance for the first time at the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. He was accepted into the advanced class because the instructors felt he had a really good foundation. “Bharatanatyam training is very strong. It’s very solid,” says Vineela.
“A part of me”
“Dance is meant for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re straight, gay, what you identify as, or who you are, because you’ll be able to find yourself,” says Avya.
Avya recently auditioned and was accepted into The UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance’s Hip Hop/Street Dance Summer Institute. He will be performing as a junior artist in IDIA (I Dance, hence I Am) as part of Ganesh Vasudeva’s “Life of Pi” ensemble this August.
“I used to love playing basketball. Instead, this has taken over. It’s a way for me to relax myself and calm myself, to come back to my true personality. It’s my meditation,” says Avya. “I want it to always be a part of me. I want my kids to learn it.”
