A yogi of a dancer, this young one from Neyveli

There are people or artistes you meet only at Natyanjali time. Big built Venkatakrishna, who looks out of a Telugu movie taps me and says hello. I cannot recall our meeting but his rewind helps.

He works for Neyveli Lignite Corpn in Tamil Nadu and is here with his wife, Anuradha who teaches Kuchipudi at the NLC township and will present a small group at the Natyanjali as its final recital for Saturday.

Venkatakrishna shows me video clips of his artistic career - being part of a Telugu drama tradition that runs for a few hundred years where artistes sing and act in shows that can run for hours in the night in the Andhra outback.

Two young artistes of Neyveli group impress. Nivedha twists and twirls with ease - later we get to know she has won dozens of medals in yoga events. Jhanavi got a long slot to do her solo, including dancing on the plate and on a pot.