Kuchipudi in the context of Kuchipudi, Krishna district

Sasirekha Parinayam is an Indian Telugu folktale based on oral traditions popular in Telugu States. While it uses characters who appear in the Mahabharata, the story is not present in the epic. The plot concerns the marriage of Sasirekha, called Vatsala in some versions, the daughter of Balarama, to Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna. It echoes the marriage of Arjuna to Subhadra in the Mahabharata.

The story is popular in performances, including Tholu bommalata (shadow puppets), Yakshagana, and Kuchipudi. By early 1950s, Surabhi theatre troupes made the folktale popular across Telugu-speaking regions.

The Raslila (Sanskrit: रासलीला, romanized: Rāsalīlā), also rendered the Rasalila or the Ras dance, is part of a traditional story described in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavata Purana and Gita Govinda, where Krishna dances with Radha and the gopis of Braj. Rasalila has also been a popular theme for other India classical dances including Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Manipuri Raas Leela, Kuchipudi, and Kathak.

The Indian classical dance of Kathak and Manipuri rasalila are evolved from the rasalila of Braj. Kathak, also known as Natwari Nritya, was revived in the 1960s by the Kathak dancer, Uma Sharma.

Indian classical dance, or Shastriya Nritya, is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance, the theory and practice of which can be traced to the Sanskrit text Natya Shastra.The number of Indian classical dance styles ranges from six to eight to twelve, or more, depending on the source and scholar; the main organisation for Indian arts preservation, the Sangeet Natak Academy recognizes eight: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam. Additionally, the Indian Ministry of Culture includes Chhau in its list, recognising nine total styles. Scholars such as Drid Williams add Chhau, Yakshagana and Bhagavata Mela to the list. Each dance tradition originates and comes from a different state and/or region of India; for example, Bharatanatyam is from Tamil Nadu in the south of India, Odissi is from the east coast state of Odisha, and Manipuri is from the northeastern state of Manipur. The music associated with these different dance performances consists many compositions in Hindi, Malayalam, Meitei (Manipuri), Sanskrit, Tamil, Odia, Telugu, Assamese, and many other Indian-Subcontinent languages; they represent a unity of core ideas and a diversity of styles, costumes, and expression.

Bhagavata Mela is a classical Indian dance that is performed in Tamil Nadu, particularly the Thanjavur area. It is choreographed as an annual Vaishnavism tradition in Melattur and nearby regions, and celebrated as a dance-drama performance art. The dance art has roots in a historic migration of practitioners of Kuchipudi, another Indian classical dance art, from Andhra Pradesh to the kingdom of Tanjavur.

The term Bhagavata, state Brandon and Banham, refers to the Hindu text Bhagavata Purana. Mela is a Sanskrit word that means "gathering, meeting of a group" and connotes a folk festival. The traditional Bhagavata Mela performance acts out the legends of Hinduism, set to the Carnatic style music.