About Gurukul Academy
Gurukul Dance Academy was established in 2009.
After moving to Kansas City in 2002, Samarpita immersed herself in performing nationwide as a soloist, and received numerous accolades for her Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam repertoires. Through Kansas Arts Commission and KCYA, she was able to generate a lot of interest in Kuchipudi too, among mainstream audience. Surprisingly, what she noticed among the Indian diaspora of KC, was, a very limited knowledge and exposure to this beautiful style of dance from Andhra Pradesh. There was no mentionable presence of Kuchipudi in the Overland Park area. That was the driving force behind her finally establishing a Kuchipudi institute that would work tirelessly in propagating and popularizing the exquisite ‘Bani’ or style of Guru, Padma Bhushan Dr.Vempati Chinna Satyam. The Academy students regularly perform at multiple prestigious events in the Kansas City area annually. The Future Stages Festival at Kauffman Centre, Dance in the Park, The Nelson Atkins Museum, India Association of Kansas City, Telugu Association of Kansas City, The Hindu Temple of Kansas City and many others.
About Gurukul Dance Company
Gurukul Dance Company was established in 2012.
After pursuing a dance career professionally for close to 2 decades, both as a company dancer with Calcutta Kalamandalam and a soloist in the USA, Samarpita felt, the time was right to establish a Kuchipudi dance company. That is how GDC or Gurukul Dance Company was born in 2012. Becoming the Artistic Director of a company gave wings to Samarpita’s creative vision. She, and her company of trained dancers, performed many ground breaking productions, that were created and scripted by Guru Samarpita. It was not long, before GDC’s reputation as an impeccable dance company spread beyond the boundaries of Kansas-Missouri. GDC was invited by organizers in cities across the nation and garnered rave reviews for their visionary works. In Kansas City, GDC has been featured by the National World War 1 Museum and Memorial, The Fringe Festival, National Conference of Dance USA 2017. GDC has toured evening length concerts multiple times at K-State University, Purdue University, Yale University, St.Louis, Indianapolis, Ames, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Sacramento and Santa Barbara. They have also been recipients of the Arts KC Regional Grant and Francis Foundation Grant, multiple times, for their ground breaking productions.