Daily Inspiration: Meet Divya Devaguptapu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Divya Devaguptapu

Hi Divya, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical Dance) dancer, choreographer & educator based in San Diego, CA and Chennai, India. I was born in India. I started learning the art form at a very young age. I was 4 years old when I started learning dance and gave my debut performance at the age of 7 in Mumbai, India. Seeing my talent and immense interest in dance, my parents moved to Chennai (a city in the Southern part of India which is considered the cultural hub of India) to further my education in dance under the world renowned Gurus V P Dhananjayan & Shanta Dhananjayan. I went to dance class everyday after school and on weekends and that’s the only thing I remember doing as a child. Everything that I am today is what I learnt from my Gurus. They are more than my Gurus, they are like my parents. I started touring as part of their dance company when I was 11 years old. My first international tour as part of the company was to the US in 1991 for a collaboration with Late. Jacques d’ Amboise from the National Dance Institute of New York. We had close to 20 sold out shows and it was a phenomenal experience for me as a 11 year old. I was written in several magazines and dailies as a child & pre-teen prodigy. I had an absolutely memorable experience as a teenager touring and performing world over along with my Gurus and as a solo artist.

Most Indian families heavily emphasize and value formal education and do not encourage a career in the arts. Though I had a wonderful career in dance even as a pre-teen, owing to societal and peer pressure I was scared to take up a full time career in the arts and chose to study Science & Engineering in my Bachelors to ensure a secure and stable future. I came to the United States as a student in 2001 to pursue a Masters in Electrical Engineering at USC, Los Angeles. And that’s where I met my husband, Sangram Tidke (Director of Engineering at a Wireless company in Sorrento Valley). After completing our Masters degree we got married and moved to San Diego as both of us found jobs here. I worked for five years at Motorola Inc as a Senior Software Engineer for the Mobile Phones division. Yet, all through my Masters and my stint at Motorola, most of my days went by dreaming about my dance. I continued to dance through the evenings after school/work, but when I went back to work the next day, I longed for more.

The inner calling to devote my life to art was strong. Finally in 2007, I gave it all up and went back to my first love – dance ! By then I had already been teaching several young children in San Diego and had been performing all over the US too. A chance meeting and collaboration with Prof Patricia Rincon from UCSD opened up a great opportunity for me to teach Bharatanatyam at UCSD, which I did for 10 years, until the pandemic. It was a great experience to be able to share a culturally specific art form with a diverse student community at UCSD. I would have 50+ kids in my class and every quarter was pure joy! Many other opportunities of performance & teaching started coming my way and I couldn’t be more grateful to the Universe for so seamlessly ensuring my transition to a full time career as an artist.

We moved to the beautiful neighborhood of Sabre Springs (close to Scripps Ranch/Poway) in 2010 and welcomed our son in 2011. Since then I have been dividing my time between San Diego & India, performing, teaching and sharing the joy of what I love to do most – DANCE!

I have had the great privilege of collaborating with several artists and musicians over the years as part of my journey in the art. Over the last 8 years I’ve been collaborating and working closely with Musician Ranjani Ramakrishnan of Morrisville, NC. One of our creations, a dance film titled “Soham – The Swan” was selected for several International Dance film festivals including the Lincoln Center, New York. A chance collaboration brought us together and I am truly grateful to the Universe for our continued artistic partnership.

It’s been an absolutely phenomenal journey to be an artist and I wouldn’t have it any other way! My heart is filled with gratitude and appreciation for all that I have been given and the incredible opportunity I have each day to make a difference in peoples lives through the powerful and transformative medium of art. And no, I don’t miss being an Engineer! 🙂

I am also extremely grateful to America and for all that it has taught me. America helped me find myself and a deeper connection to my roots. It gave me a stable and open space to think, evolve and share.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life is never a smooth road! I am most grateful for all the challenges that have showed up along the way. In worldly terms we label our experiences as success or failure. But to be honest, I have never seen any experience as a failure. I believe the Universe is always supportive of ones dreams and desires, and does everything in its capacity to enable it. Every experience, however difficult and painful, is ultimately only to support you and your growth. The so called “failures” are the experiences that have taught me the most about myself and the world we inhabit. Accepting and acknowledging the pain in times of distress has made me lighter and taken me closer to my truth.

I’ve always believed that each person is unique in their own way and that we have to spend silent time with ourselves to know who we are and how best we can contribute to the world. It may be perceived by some as “going against the grain”, yet I believe that there is no other way to find yourself and your truest expression other than walking the unknown path – a path that feels right to you. The untrodden path isn’t easy, for we never know what may come along the way. But, if we stay open to receiving everything that the unknown comes with, with firm belief that it is there only for our highest good, the journey is magical. For true beauty and revelation happens in the unknown.

I’ve often experienced self doubt, disappointment, pain, loss, anger, confusion and more along the way. But, acknowledging and accepting each of these emotions and experiences, has been my biggest learning. My desire was always about finding my truest voice, my truest expression. And I was willing to take everything that came my way on that journey of self discovery. For example, giving up what the world considers a “lucrative career” in Tech to pursue art, came with a lot of questioning and discouragement from people around me. But, I stayed true to my inner voice and kept following where it led me. Of course I went through many phases of self doubt and disillusionment, but I am extremely thankful for all those moments, for they helped me find deeper clarity each day. The practice of my art has never been a means to an end. I wanted my practice and sharing of the art to come from a purposeful space. This wasn’t something most people could understand and that came with its own set of challenges. But every challenge taught me to stay more rooted and find deeper faith in myself to continue forging a path in the art that may have been unconventional for the world, but true to me.

Life isn’t fair – that was one life-lesson that took me time to understand and accept, for I often slipped into feeling like a victim and kept insisting on fairness and justice through my journey. But, the day I realized that I was never a victim and each experience was to only take me to a higher place, my faith, gratitude and devotion for life became so much more profound. Yes, there is anger, disappointment and more at the many unjust ways of the world, but it took me time to acknowledge and accept anger and frustration as the many emotions we have to experience to find acceptance.

Art education has always been viewed as an extra curricular and it still is in many ways. But I strongly feel otherwise. For me, art is essential! In my opinion, every child must learn an art form growing up. Art is the only thing that makes us connect to our innermost self sans division of race, gender, religion. At its core, art is expression and this universality of expression is the very essence of who we are as humans on this planet. Art brings people together, regardless of age, class, religion or belief. For most people this is very difficult to explain for they think that art is just another activity the child does after school and they don’t give it the kind of value and importance it deserves. Many times I have been disappointed by parents of students, policy makers and other stakeholders with the treatment that art education is given, but I am optimistic that things will change. In fact, things are changing. Learning an art form is not about competition or performance or fame. It is about accessing a space within every human that is beyond the material. It is a way to access our true selves. I want more reforms in art education for children K-12, for art has to touch the life of every child!

I feel so grateful for the teachings of the many Spiritual masters of our world (Sadhguru, Sri Sri, J Krishnamurthy, Osho) whose teachings and wise words of wisdom helped me through all the “lows” and helped me on this journey of life, which isn’t different from my journey in the art.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a practitioner of Bharatanatyam, a tradition classical dance form from Southern India. Bharatanatyam isn’t just my “career” – it is much more – it is my prayer, my meditation and perhaps the best expression of myself. I am a choreographer, performer, producer, curator and educator.

There are two aspects to the dance form of Bharatanatyam – Nritta (Pure dance movement and rhythmic footwork) and Abhinaya (Expression/Emotion/Mime). I love both aspects very much and each aspect brings forth a different expression in me. However, abhinaya is where I truly feel alive. It deals with an embodied expression of very sensitive, nuanced and subtle emotions that have to be accessed as a lived experience within. We dance to several poems known as padams, ashtapadis, javalis, which deal with sensitive human emotions of love, longing and man-woman relationships in all their glory. Every abhinaya piece forces me to access often denied emotions within me to convey the intent and import of the lyric I am dancing too. It calls for many layers and shades of emotion within that one has to access, experience and dance. It is challenging because it requires great inner stillness, sensitivity and vulnerability – but that is the reason it is so beautiful. For me, abhinaya is life! I am globally recognized as one of the foremost exponents of Abhinaya in the field of Bharatanatyam today.

I am most proud of all the works I have created over the last two decades. When I started off as a professional, I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t create work that wasn’t intentional or meaningful. I told myself that on my death bed, if I were to I look back at all the work I have created, I should be proud of every single one of them! I immerse myself fully into every creation and allow it to take its time and take form when it is ready to… for I believe, creation happens for it’s own sake, for the creation to experience itself. My job as an artist is to become a perfect empty vessel so creation can take form through me.

I come from a family of musicians, my mother, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, were all musicians. I learnt Carnatic Music (South Indian Classical Music) too growing up and my dance is considered highly musical. For me, dance is a response to the music through movement. Music is the soul of my dance!

I am very passionate about Art Education and its importance in the lives of children and adults alike. I have taught Bharatanatyam at University of California San Diego and been a teaching artist with Young Audiences of America, A Step Beyond, Arts Education Connect and Family Arts Collaborative. I also mentor several students of Bharatanatyam at Sannidhi Performing Arts, San Diego. Several of my students have performed their Arangetram and have toured with me internationally for performances.

I am also the founding director of Suryakala Foundation for Performing Arts in Chennai, India, a non-profit trust for the promotion of Classical Music & Dance. Our foundation aims to ideate, curate and present classical dance and music with continued relevance to today’s audience with an emphasis on creativity and innovation within tradition. Ekam, a critically acclaimed festival of Bharatanatyam solos is curated by me.

What sets me apart I believe is my honesty, immersion in the art and the responsibility with which I handle the rich tradition of this art form that has been handed down to me. I believe that tradition is a flowing evolving entity and has to be handled with utmost respect and responsibility as we continue to enrich the flow of tradition with our own lived experience of life in the art. I also focus on researching traditional texts as I interpret them in the context of our lived experience as humans and artists today in the 21st century. Tradition is ever changing, but it is also timeless in its intent. My art comes from a space of lived experience within and that to me is most important as a creator.

I firmly believe in the unifying power of art to uplift and enable an inner seeking. My creative strength has been in stretching the boundaries of Bharatanatyam making it accessible to today’s global audiences through deeper interpretations and metaphors. I hope to someday see Bharatanatyam as mainstream in global conversations of dance.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
For me, success is growth, for growth is all there is! The word “success” is often defined as fame, power, position, money or something external in the world that one acquires. Yet to me, success is the inner growth of me as a spiritual being inhabiting this planet. Growth that happens as a result of relentless trust, devotion and surrender to this beautiful experience we are all here for on Earth, called “life”! I strongly believe that every human has a unique expression to share with the world, but we have to spend the time to go within and seek our truest expression. We have to shed layers of conditioning and become more of ourselves each day for our expression to stem from a space of truth. This quest of my truest expression has been most important and each day I feel slightly closer to finding my innermost truth.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divyadevaguptapu/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DivyaDevaguptapu/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DivyaDevaguptapu

Image Credits
Arun Kumar
Ramanathan Iyer
Prine Photography
Soundharya Muthukrishnan
Koteswara Yarlagadda
Hrishikesh Unni