About Hima
Founder & Artistic Director, Nrityananda School of Kuchipudi
Hima Bindu Challa
Hima Bindu Challa was initiated into Kuchipudi under the great maestro Padmabhushan Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam, with whom she trained extensively for over ten years in Chennai, India. She continued her advanced training under Smt. Satyapriya Ramana, a senior disciple of Dr. Vempati.
In India she performed at prestigious organizations and won many awards, beginning with the national award at the Inter-University National Youth Festival in 1988. She made her international debut at the Festival of India in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1996, earning warm reviews from leading critics, and toured the United States with her guru in 1998.
She has danced lead roles in celebrated Kuchipudi dance-dramas including Menaka Vishwamitra, Swapna Vijayam (the Kuchipudi adaptation of the Nutcracker), Mahishasura Mardhini, and Girija Kalyanam, and performed at the Siddhendra Jayanthi festival in the village of Kuchipudi itself — the birthplace of the art form.
In 2004 she founded the Nrityananda School of Kuchipudi in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has taught generations of students with the same rigor, devotion, and joy with which she was trained.
National award, Inter-University National Youth Festival, India.
International debut at the Festival of India, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Toured the USA with her guru, Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam.
Performed at the Siddhendra Jayanthi festival in Kuchipudi village.
Founded the Nrityananda School of Kuchipudi in the Bay Area.
“To teach Kuchipudi is to hand a lamp from one generation to the next — the flame is devotion, the oil is discipline.”— Hima Bindu Challa
In the tradition of Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam
Often called the architect of modern Kuchipudi, Padmabhushan Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam systematized the art form on the principles of the Natyashastra and carried it to stages across the world. Nrityananda teaches in his direct lineage — every adavu, every story, passed down hand to hand.