Guru Vidushi
Smt. Padmini Achchi
Is one of the most accomplished Bharatanatyam Dancers/Choreographers. She started learning dance at age of 9. She had her initial training from Guru Vidwan Sri K. Rammurthy Rao of Mysore. She pursued her Vidwat under his tutelage in 1988.
She started her odyssey as Teacher by establishing ‘Achchi Classical Dance Centre’ with simple desire to share the joy experienced from expressing and communicating through dance. It was founded in year 2000 in AGS Layout, Bangalore and now has branches in Poorna Pragna Layout and Janatha Bazar. As an artistic Director of the school, she has trained hundreds of students in Bharatanatyam.
Padmini Achchi strongly believes that ‘One’s quench of learning should never cease’, this belief motivated her to pursue an advanced training in Bharatanatyam under of tutelage of Guru. B. Bhanumati and Guru Vidushi Smt. Sheela Chandrashekhar.
Her versatility as a choreographer and commitment as a guru is evident in her dance compositions and Ballet Productions. Her choreographic work performed by ACDC ensemble have won critical acclaim from far and wide. She has also done choreography for various dance-drama shows like, ’BHARATHA BHAGYA VIDHATA’ – dance drama by vartha prachara elake and ‘SUGANDADA SEEMEYACHE’ – A dance drama by Nirguna.
Guru Padmini Achchi has trained many of her disciples for their dance debut (Arangetram) who are active performers in present day. Few of her disciples have established their own dance schools.
Her Special Recognitions Include:
About the establishment and growth of ACDC
‘Achchi Classical Dance Centre’(ACDC) was founded in year 2000 in AGS Layout, Bangalore and now has branches in Poorna Pragna Layout and Janatha Bazar. ACDC provides students of all age groups with all levels of training in theory and practical technique. Dance individually is a journey as each one of ours is. Our primary objective is to guide our students’ personal growth, enabling them to progress in technique, artistry and creativity. We give a great deal of importance for ‘Guru-Shishya sambandha’. We were winners of Global level dance competition held by ‘Sri Shankara Channel’ and ‘Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning’. We also secured prizes in various categories in state level competition hosted by ‘Bharathiya Nritya Kala Parishath’.
Annual Programs
Achchi Classical Dance Centre presents annual programs
‘CHIGURU’ plans to be held during January
‘TILIJALA’ plans to be held during June/July. Both of which are one day events.
Tilijala
“Tilijala”, the annual dance festival of ACDC started in the year 2011, which consistently has been a well-received show by the audience every year. This festival was started by Guru. Vidhushi Smt Padmini Achchi to encourage the students of the institution and create a platform to showcase their talent through group performances, wonderfully choreographed by the Guru herself. Since past 7 years, the institution aims at producing new directions and choreographies to live music, making the performance even more cherishable. Guru Padmini Achchi also believes that Tilijala is not just to showcase the talents, but also a medium to learn responsibilities and develop a wonderful personality as a professional dancer.
The main objective of this event is:
Chiguru
Chiguru – The adorable dance festival of ACDC, started in the year 2017 by Guru Vidhushi Smt Padmini Achchi with the vision of creating a platform for the budding artists of the institution. Preparing the toddlers who are initially at the crawling stage of Bharathanatyam to give a full-fledged stage performance, requires lot of patience and diligence. This commendable quality can be seen in Guru Padmini Achchi through her choreographies specially meant for the kids.This festival also creates opportunities for the senior students of the institution to train and prepare the kids, also host the show. Thus creating a package for the overall development of students.
The main objective of this event is:
Trimaasothsava
Along with these two annual programs, ‘Trimaasothsava’ is held once in every three months which include programs like:
Classes / Batches
We have formulated batches into 5 levels based on the student’s learning stage:
Adavu Batch
Adavus are the basic/building blocks of Bharathanatyam. Students in this batch learn basics and elementary knowledge
Junior batch
Once the training in Adavus is complete, the students are introduced to simple dance choreographies which mostly contain nritta like alaripu, jatiswara, little bit of abhinaya through devaranamas and theoaritical knowledge from Natyashastra and Abhinayadarpana.
Senior Batch
Here they learn advance choreographies in both nirtta and abhinaya and are introduced to Nayika bhavas.
Vidwath batch
In this batch, students are introduced to complex items like Varna. They are trained to sing jatis, handle nattuvanga and do make up for self and others. They are also introduced to teaching aspects of dance under guru’s guidance. They become complete dancers at this stage.
Sreemati Batch
This batch was introduced to women who wanted to start learning at a much mature age. The sequence of teaching remains the same. But progress of every individual depends on their learning speed.
Performance Highlights
Exams
Students at ACDC undergo intense training through regular contact classes, in both the practical and theoretical
aspects of the subject, grooming them to be holistic artists.
They are motivated to take up the exams conducted by
- Karnataka Secondary Education Board
- Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya
- ACDC institution Exams (Introduced by her in 2018) hence encouraging them to pursue the divine art professionally.
Hundreds of students have cleared these exams on multiple levels with flying colors under her guidance.
She introduced her own institution exams in order to well verse her disciples with aspects of both ‘Abhinaya Darpana’ and ‘Naatya Shastra’ Institution exams will not only enhance the learning speed but also allow her to establish great bonding with her students.
Faculty
Sagara B S
Sagara B. S. unfolded learning Bharathanatyam at the age of 8. She has received her Triple major Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts, English Literature and Psychology from the Christ University, Bengaluru. Currently she is perceiving MA in dance in Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University, Mysore. Gradually swayed by her passion for classical dance, she has been practicing dance at Achchi Classical Dance Centre under the impregnable guidance of Guru Vidushi Smt. Padmini Achchi.
Siri Mahesh
Being an ardent learner, Siri Mahesh embarked her training in Bharatanatyam since the age of 10. Having a part of dance inside her, she was encouraged by her parents and tutored by her mother, Guru Vidhushi Smt Padmini Achchi at Achchi Classical Dance Centre. Though from a recognized background, Siri Mahesh has always been diligent and earned her identity as an alluring dancer.
Sharanya Sridhar
Sharanya Sridhar started out her venture in seeking the knowledge of Bharatanatyam at the age of 8. With a sturdy support from her parents, she commenced her practice in dance under the guidance of Guru Vidhushi Smt Padmini Achchi, who always guided her through all her endeavors. Sharanya has distinguishingly completed her Vidwat from Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board and Visharad Dwitya from Akhil Bhartiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Maharashtra Board.
Anita
Anita has always been a zealous learner and is immensely shown a great deal of interest in Bharatanatyam. She has been practicing dance under the soulful guidance of Guru Vidhushi Smt Padmini Achchi. Anita is an accomplished Computer Science graduate who works as a Business Analyst in a reputed Investment Banker Firm.
