NOOPURA @ NORTH AMERICA

In 1989, Mrs.Kurup started a branch of Noopura in New York city, to serve dance lovers among the Indian expatriate population as well as to present Indian classical dance to a wider international audience. Noopura’s New York center is now a reputed and successful institution in its filed, currently training above 200 students and presenting performance all over the United States. Students from this center have won titles several times at the annual FOKANA (Federation of Kerala Associations of North America) dance competitions. The cultural organization in MOSAIC arranged a celebration of the 50th anniversary of India’s independence on 15th august 1997 in Lincoln Hall, and they selected Noopura to perform most of the classical dances. In1999, Noopura also had the distinction of being named the best school of he dance by the world Malayali Youth Council of North America, due to the outstanding performance conducted by the council.

Similar success had attended the stage productions choreographed and directed by Mrs. Kurup and executed by students of Noopura. In 1994, there was uniform appreciation for the dance drama “Bhasmasura mohini”, based on legend from Indian epics, from both connoisseurs of dance as well as general audiences. Two years later, Nopura blazed a new trail by adapting a Bibilical story, “John The Baptist”, to Indian classical dance idiom. In 2003-04, Mrs.Kurup and her students staged another successful competition, “Dances of India”, which displayed the dazzling variety of the dance styles of India while outlining their underlying harmony and their inheritance of a common tradition.

The Noopura Institute in New York trains students, from age four to forty, in the ancient yet timeless tradition of Indian classical dance. By its dedicated effort, this center equips its students with the grace and skills to further the expansion of this tradition in the North American continent.