page_title: Protima Bedi
section_title: Nrityagram
hierarchical_section_title: Protima Bedi / Career / Nrityagram
caption_attribution_description: Temple at Nrityagram. Fashioned from the raw mud of Nrityagram and fired after it was built, the temple is dedicated to space. It is decorated with panels depicting the elements, dance motifs, mudras and designs from costumes and ghungroos. Inside is a granite rock scooped out to hold water and a flame that stays lit. Designed and built by Ray Meeker in 1998.
context_page_description: Protima Gauri Bedi
  was an Indian model turned Odissi exponent. In 1990, she established "Nrityagram", a dance village near Bangalore.
context_section_description: Nrityagram, situated on the outskirts of Bangalore, became India's first free dance gurukul, village for various Indian classical dances, consisting of seven gurukuls for the seven classical dance styles and two martial arts forms, Chhau and Kalaripayattu. She wanted to revive the guru-shishya parampara in the right kind of environment. Nrityagram was inaugurated on 11 May 1990, by the then Prime Minister, V.P. Singh. The dance school has a small community of students from all parts of India, but with a common aim - dance. The Nrityagram ensemble was soon performing all over the world. Meanwhile, in 1992, she appeared in Pamela Rooks's English film, Miss Beatty's Children .
  Nrityagram, created as a model dance village, was constructed by master architect, Gerard da Cunha. It had even won the Best Rural Architecture' award in 1991. To raise funds to run Nrityagram, a tourist resort Kuteeram was built in 1992. Nrityagram is also the venue of the annual dance festival Vasanta Habba, which was first started in 1994 and had 40,000 visitors when it was last held in 2004. It has not been held from 2005–2007, due to the advent of the 2004 tsunami and a shortage of funds.
caption: A temple dedicated to Kelucharan Mohapatra at Nrityagram Dance Community, near Bangalore, established by Protima Bedi.
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