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Kathakali
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Featured May 30 , 2005
Kathakali is the traditional dance of the Kerala region of India
Kathakali is a combined form of dance and drama which is native to the Kerala region in southern India. Those of you who have read Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things will remember her description of an evening of Kathakali at the local temple.
There are five elements of Kathakali: Natya, histrionics, or exaggerated dramatics; Nritta, pure dance; Nrithya, expressional dance; Geetha, vocals; and Vadya, percussion. The dancers wear heavy mask-like makeup and elaborate costumes and tell their story through pantomime and special dance steps. There are twenty-four primary mudras and six to eight hundred physical gestures used to act out the story being told by one or two singers in the background who are accompanied by country drums, chenda, maddalam, cymbals, elathalam, and a gong, chengala. The term katha means story and kali means dance. Kathakali literally means story play. The dances are based on stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and tell of heroes and gods, and villains and demons. There are hundreds of Kathakali stories, the most popular being those from the Bhagavata Purana which relates the life and adventures of Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. Scholars trace the roots of Kathakali to Kuttiyattam, an ancient Sanskrit drama form and Kathakali is considered to offer an good insight into the ancient Vedic culture. Kathakali originated in the 17th century as an entertainment in the courts of the kings of Kerala. The songs were sung in Malayalam, the youngest of the Dravidian languages, rather than in Sanskrit. By the 18th century, Kathakali had moved away from the courts to be performed at the temples, becoming available to all levels of society. Kathakali fell out of practice during the British Raj, but today has experienced a revival, beginning with the foundation of Kalamandalam in 1930, a school in Cheruthuruthi, Kerala, devoted to the classical performing arts. A Kathakali dancer undergoes six years of intense physical training which is aimed at his gaining complete control over his body, including his facial muscles and even his eyeballs, which he will learn to rotate in all directions. This training includes painful oil massages to promote flexibility, especially in the legs, allowing the dancer to turn his legs outward. Since so much of the story is conveyed through facial expressions, careful attention is paid to the makeup of the dancers which can take as long as three hours to apply. The faces of gods, heroes and kings are painted green and have large ridges of white rice paste around the chin and sides of the cheeks. Demons are depicted with red faces and villains have black makeup. Beards have special meanings as well - red for agressive or demonic characters, black for aborigines, cavemen and foresters, and white for saints and intellectuals. The dancers' lips are painted a bright red and the whites of the eyes are reddened with juice from crushed seeds. Male dancers also attach long silver fingernails to their left hands. Costumes are elaborate and the dancers are heavily ornamented with jewelry. Kathakali was traditionally performed by villagers for other villagers and in the past, important citizens would form and fund their own dance troupes. Traditionally, Kathakali dancers were all male but today women are increasingly participating as performers and teachers, though the costumes and makeup of the female dancers is much simpler that that of the males. The dancers are held in high regard in Kerala. A Kathakali performance begins at nightfall and continues until dawn. A stage of about sixteen square feet is erected in a temple courtyard or other public place. A thatched canopy, or pandal, about ten feet high is set up to cover the stage. There is always a green room nearby for the dancers who are not onstage. The stage is decorated with coconut leaves, areca nuts, and other native plants. The lighting is from oil lamps placed on tall brass stands. A thick cluster of these is set to face the stage, representing the sun. A smaller cluster is set closer to the audience to represent the moon. The flickering of the flames from these lights adds a mysterious and spiritual element to the setting. At about six o'clock, a short passage of drumming called Kelikottu announces the evening's performance, which doesn't actually begin until about nine o'clock. Another passage of drumming, called Arrangukeli announces the beginning of the dance. This is followed by Thodayam, an abstract dance performed in simple costume and makeup by junior members of the dance troupe as an invocation. The Vandanaslokam, or prayer song, is then recited before the Purappad is launched to introduce the main character in the story. When the drama is complete, there is a segment of pure dance called Dhanasi to end the performance. Kathakali Photographs Visit Kalamandalam Center for the Performing Arts sources: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/kathakali_dancers_india.htm http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/nmj_articles/sacred_dance/bharata-natyam.html http://www.kathakalisadanam.com/history.htm http://www.geocities.com/hellojis/kathakali/Kathakalihomepage.htm (the text in this last link will not show up in Firefox) Basham, A.L., editor. A Cultural History of India (Oxford University Press, 2004) |
Sacred Dance
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