(February 10, 2026) During Chinmayee’s childhood, every weekend, her family would drive an hour to a temple in Maryland. While her parents attended spiritual classes, a young Chinmayee, growing up in the pre-iPad, pre-smartphone era, found ways to occupy herself at the temple. Over time, she memorised the Vishnu Sahasranamam, a revered Sanskrit hymn comprising a thousand names of Lord Vishnu, each describing a different attribute of the divine and traditionally recited as a form of devotion and reflection.
“I became deeply fascinated by the stories of gods and goddesses,” she reflects in a chat with Global Indian. “That’s actually how I learned the entire Vishnu Sahasranamam,” Those early encounters with philosophy, narrative, and ritual would later shape a life lived across seemingly distinct worlds. Today, Chinmayee Balabhadrapatruni works in AI strategy for the U.S. government, is a Kuchipudi dancer trained in a deeply traditional lineage, and an educator committed to teaching storytelling through movement. In a time when identity is often flattened into neat labels, she inhabits complexity with quiet confidence.
Born in India and raised in the United States, Chinmayee carries her culture not as a fragment of memory but as an evolving presence. “My culture is not just a part of me,” she says. “It is who I am.” At 30, Chinmayee belongs to a generation that has inherited classical forms across oceans, and chosen to hold them with both reverence and relevance.
An immigrant childhood
Chinmayee was just two years old when her parents moved to the United States in 1996. She grew up primarily in Virginia, in what she describes as a “very typical middle-class immigrant experience” of the late 1990s and early 2000s, shaped by remarkable intentionality.
“My parents were really deliberate about making sure I wasn’t just connected to my culture, but truly integrated into it,” she recalls. That intention translated into ritual and routine. Weekends revolved around the temple. Chinmayee attended Bal Vihar classes at the Chinmaya Mission, read extensively, and was encouraged to ask questions early on. Why do we do pradakshina? Why wear a bindi? If her parents didn’t have answers, they guided her toward teachers and gurus who did. Tradition, she learned, was not something to be memorised blindly, but understood.
That grounding shaped how she later approached both art and identity. “I know I’m equally Indian and American,” she reflects. “That understanding came from learning history, seeking multiple perspectives, and being encouraged to ask difficult questions.”
Becoming the story: Kuchipudi, commitment and transformation
Her introduction to Kuchipudi came almost by accident. During one of those long temple days in 2001, she was taken into a nearby auditorium where a performance of Andal Kalyanam was underway. The story of Godha Devi, the ninth-century Tamil saint-poet, unfolded through colour, costume, and expression. “I was absolutely drawn in,” she remembers. “The storytelling, the emotion—it felt transformative.”
Her mother enrolled her the following week at Kalamandapam, a Kuchipudi school founded by Srimati Mrinalini Sadananda, who would later become her guru. The early years were challenging.“For about three years, I just wasn’t succeeding,” Chinmayee admits. “I didn’t have natural talent. I loved the idea of being a dancer, but the ability didn’t come easily.”
The turning point came in the summer of 2005, during an intensive three-week camp led by Guru Vittal Pasumarthi. “That was when I learned what it meant to forget Chinmayee and truly become the character I was dancing,” she explains. “Involvement, and that complete immersion, changed everything. It took me from being a below-average dancer to a strong performer.”
Training in classical dance while living outside India came with challenges, but Chinmayee benefited from consistent exposure to visiting artists from India through her guru.“If pursued with intention,” she says, “it’s become easier over time.”
Art, technology and responsibility
Today, Chinmayee works in AI strategy as a government consultant, drawing on her academic background in public policy. Alongside this, she continues to perform, teach, choreograph, and explore the social possibilities of classical dance. “I believe government and technology should work for the benefit of the taxpayer,” she says. “Not the other way around.” That belief informs her artistic worldview. “Art is not just creative or spiritual,” she adds. “It’s inherently political.”
She challenges the assumption that young people are disengaging from classical forms. “Interest hasn’t disappeared—it’s evolving,” she explains. While long-format performances face challenges, digital platforms have enabled new forms of engagement.“When the form is taught with clarity, context, and respect for students’ time, young people respond strongly,” she says. “It’s not tradition that’s the problem. It’s adaptation.”
Teaching and transmission
Teaching has become central to Chinmayee’s practice. For seven years, she taught voluntarily at Kalamandapam. Now based in New York City, she teaches private students online and is launching an in-person workshop series through the Chinmaya Mission focused on storytelling through movement.
“Teaching keeps me accountable,” she reflects. “It forces me to keep learning.” One of her most meaningful performances, her Nritya Sambhavana, took place on an open-air temple stage in Guntur, with minimal preparation and no elaborate ceremony. The audience consisted of temple-goers who stayed because they connected with the art. “They were strangers,” she says. “They stayed because something moved them.”
A living inheritance
Looking ahead, Chinmayee is increasingly engaged in interdisciplinary work. She has joined the Aseemkala Initiative, which integrates Indian classical dance with narrative medicine and healthcare, and continues to explore how movement-based storytelling can build confidence, communication, and empathy.
Outside performance, she reads widely, cooks, sews, and creates. Recently, she designed and stitched her own performance costume. Family remains central to her life. Married to Sai Suman Peddi, whom she describes as her closest supporter, Chinmayee values a partnership rooted in curiosity and dialogue.
With her niece now learning Kuchipudi, the cycle of transmission continues. For Chinmayee Balabhadrapatruni, being a Global Indian is not defined by distance from home, but by depth of connection—carried across borders, shaped by inquiry, and sustained through story.
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