Jai Kishore Mosalikanti and Padmavani

For many years, Kuchipudi guru Jaikishore Mosalikanti has been seen in the corner. A sishya of the great Vempati Chinnasatyam, he is a guru, choreographer and nattuvanar.

But for some time, dance colleagues like Neena Prasad, the Mohiniattam dancer and his wife, Padmavani have been telling Jai that he needs to perform.

Perform on stage if he is to gain better recognition.

The suggestion went home and Jai partners his wife and the duo have been getting invites for Kuchipudi recitals.

"Doing nattuvangam and choreographing for others brings money for middle class artistes like us but we don't have the money to pay to perform," he says candidly as he enjoys a banana backstage at Chidambaram, a hour before his recital.

The couple ( seen in the first photo here) have had it good in their new avatar as dancers. And Jai is keen that we watch their Natyanjali performance. By the looks of it, he seems fired.

This year, Jai will also present - Pranamya Suri from Dallas, USA ( seen in second photo here).

Suri who is about to get into medical school has taken a break to learn more of Kuchipudi, spending 5 months in Chennai and also bagging a few recitals.

Suri's mom is a well known Kuchipudi guru ( a sishya of Shobha Naidu) and runs her school in Dallas. The studio here provides for her training when Jai is in the USA - he will be there this summer.

On Tuesday though, Jaikishore, his wife whom he calls Vani and the sishya from USA want to experience Lord Nataraja's presence.