International cultural exchange

International Cultural Exchange (ICE) is commonly understood as people from one country visiting another country to learn about a new culture while exhibiting their own culture.

A regular practice with schools and youth organizations around the world is to send a handful of students/youth from their region to another country and allow them to live with local people. Once students start living in a home with a completely different culture, they come to understand and learn about a new culture. Recently I had my friend's daughter from Singapore who was selected for ICE and sent to Hong Kong. She had to choose a local family for a few days. It's very hard to speculate how much she would have learned about Hong Kong culture in those two days.

Have you ever heard of giving dance lessons to people of different languages ​​and countries? Well, not many would have had the opportunity to hear or see such achievements. Here is the true story of a dancer from Visakhapatnam, South India.

I have been living in Hong Kong for almost a decade now and I have always attended Indian cultural events/festivals, aarrangetrams or dance shows led by Indian dancers and their Indian students. But recently I was surprised to find a young enthusiastic and passionate kuchipudi dancer working for a renowned yoga center teaching Bollywood and other forms of Indian dances including the classic kuchipudi dance.

He is a person passionate about dance and wanted to do a little more than he was given. Therefore, he took the initiative to teach the traditional Kuchipudi dance in this yoga center. Initially there were few students but the love and passion for the dance instilled in them escalated to new heights and many more began to learn Kuchipudi dance. And today there are more than a hundred students. The most amazing thing is that all the students are Chinese and neither understand nor speak the language - Telugu of the Kuchipudi songs.

To encourage his students to continue learning, he began directing shows to perform in the traditional manner with all the costume and jewelry. This amazing, passionate dancer and choreographer is Hari Eranki, popularly referred to as Master Hari Om by all his students. Master Hari Om is one of the rare dance masters able to dance both traditional and modern dances at the same time. He trained and taught several dancers in Hong Kong with the utmost dedication and passion, which is reflected in the dancing of all his students, who dance in high spirits and happily. His students are now also performing professionally. His work as a dancer, choreographer and dance master speaks for his talent, love and passion for dance and his students.

Born to the late Professors E. Nagamamba and ES Murthy, Eranki Srihari Baladitya belonged to a family of musicians and dancers. Under the expert guidance of the legendary Guru Sri Pasumarthi Sitaramamiah, an exponent of Kuchipudi dance, Hari Om began learning Kuchipudi at the tender age of 3 and performed at the International Kuchipudi Dance Festivals in Mumbai and Hyderabad respectively at the age of 5, along with Artists like Swapna Sundari, Meenakshi Seshadri and other such great dance artists. He also received a scholarship from the Center for Cultural Resources and Education in New Delhi to study Kuchipudi for 8 years. He then received a Diploma in Kuchipudi Dance from Telugu University, Hyderabad in 1995.

Hari Om had shown interest in learning kuchipudi in different traditions such as the Pasumarti tradition and the Vempaty tradition from the Kuchipudi Kalakshetra, Visakhapatnam under Smt. Bala Kondala Rao and Sri Hari Ram Murty for a period of 3 years. He also learned Bharat Natyam from Sri. A. Rukmaji Rao for a few years from 1991 and Andhra Natyam and Perini Shiva Tandavam of Sri Nataraj Parameswaran for a few years from 1986 and obtained a certificate in Mridangam from Telugu University, Hyderabad in 1999 very young at the age of 14 as his mother founded a music and dance school called Sri Gowthami Kala Vihara.

Hari was invited to work at a yoga center in Hong Kong in 2003, where he became a trendsetter in Kuchipudi, Indian semi-classical dance and Bollywood styles. His popularity as a teacher had led all other yoga centers to offer this type of dance class, with all forms of Indian dance being very popular in Hong Kong. Hari has carved a niche for himself among many dance teachers in Hong Kong by giving several performances and organizing shows besides being the trendsetter of Indian dances in Hong Kong. The fact that he can teach and choreograph both classical and modern/Bollywood dance forms with equal finesse has earned him a special place in the hearts of his students.

The Chinese students have developed a passion for learning Telugu as it is their master's native language Hari Om and Kuchipudi songs are in Telugu. My teaching experience with them was very enthusiastic and lively and I am proud to say that within just a few lessons they have already started speaking a few words and phrases. It is an amazing experience that has no words...

Another classical dancer, Master Rajendra R. Nyathi, is another popular teacher in Hong Kong. He is an internationally recognized performer of Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi and Bollywood dances. He holds a first-class Master's degree in Performing Arts and is a recipient of the JRF and the Government of India's National Scholarships for Outstanding Young Artists. He has been head of the dance department at a number of established universities in India. He has traveled extensively in Europe, UK, USA, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China and many Asian countries.

Master Rajendra founded "Natya Yoga", a cultural organization engaged with the desire to serve Indian classical and other art forms and to spread them to the world. He too has inspired students and audiences from diverse backgrounds and cultures. His dances are emotional, expressive, full of grace, aesthetically highly appreciative.

A seasonal harvest festival, known as Sankranti in Andhra Pradesh, he has been celebrating Sankranti since 2008, during which his students perform classical, semi-classical and other dance forms choreographed solely by him. He was a wonderful trendsetter for all dancers and is also an excellent example of international cultural exchange. The Hong Kong Telugu Samakhya is proud to have Hari Eranki and Rajendra R.Nyathi, both exceptional classical dancers.

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