Kathakali

Kathakali is the indigenous art form of Kerala, the southern state of India. Katha means Story and Kali means Performance. The stories are taken from mythology in which, legendry characters are brought to live through performances. The characters are categorized as Protagonist (Key characters) and Antagonist (Anti-hero characters). This study aims to understand how different forms of non-verbal communication are used as a tool for communicating through all performing characters. The focus of study will be on Protagonist and Antagonist.

I try to move through three different eras in the history of Kathakali in this article. Though, not privileging the linear, historically Kathakali has been presented as an art form that transcends time. Through the first section, I hint that Kathakali was at the time of its inception, a source of recording (and hence, revisiting) a particular site of Aryan invasion. The following section tries to suggest that post-Malabar rebellion that concluded around the 1920s, there was an increasing tendency to foster links between upper castes of Kerala. The shared resource that they could find in the Kathakali then became a site for varied imaginations itself, forming political solidarities amongst Nairs in a way larger than ever. The ease with which they were able to align similar movements with the pan-Indian nationalist one was part of maintaining dominance in these regions. The final section is an ambitious attempt to look at how studies on Kathakali, in academia, have often taken the history as granted and then moved forward. This has then led to a 'secularisation' of the aesthetics that the dance-drama entails. The modern day Malayali imaginative then goes through a process where the present is devoid of any history and the present is seen as unproblematic through various sorts of consumption (tourism, popular culture).

This Malayalam paper published in Malayalam Weekly in late Sept 2016; is on the early anti caste struggles by Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker in mid 19th century Travancore.  Through his struggles against caste Hinduism and Varnasramadharma Velayudha Chekavar unleashed a defiant resistance to caste atrocities and exploitation done by the Savarna.  He was the pioneer of anti caste struggles in mid Travancore and his attempts preceded and created a model for later reformers like Narayanaguru.  He was annihilated by the caste Hindu feudal lords and their henchmen through cheat and barbaric violence.His thrust on education and culture in the struggle for liberation is explored in the paper with a contemporary and futuristic thrust.

Traditional Indian aesthetic theory (Kumar 2010; Pollock 2016; Shwartz 2006) deems rasa as a knowledgeable audience's taste of aesthetic pleasure, and bhava as the actor's performance of embodied emotional states. This conventional interpretation of an aesthetic theory first articulated in the Natyashastra suggests the actor does not experience pleasure or rasa, and by implication, the actor's craft is primarily in the service of the audience's pleasure. If, on the other hand, the actor does taste rasa, as evidenced by Pollock (2016) through Krishnamoorthy's (1979) interpretation of the Natyashastra, then, contrary to the conventional understanding, a transfer of this ability from guru or master practitioner to learner, is at the heart of its actor training pedagogy. To transfer this very specific skill full ability, the master practitioner's actions need to be imitated precisely and not interpreted. The dominant western academic narrative of Kathakali's imitative pedagogy represents it as "mimicking", a quality for low, and specially not of the high arts. A renegotiating of the idea of mimicry with a more complex and nuanced "mirroring," offers up fertile conceptual ground for an investigation into its offerings of rasa. Practice-led research conducted by the practitioner researcher as part of his doctoral thesis exploring the teaching of Kathakali in Australia, offers original theoretical and practical insights into a transfer of rasa from master practitioner to learner, at the site of intercultural actor training.

The concept of Guru Shishya, the traditional Indian/Kathakali teacher/learner training methodology, was primarily a mirroring process where in, for a number of years the learner was learning the craft, receiving knowledge and skill by mirroring (and not imitating or mimicking) a realized teacher and practitioner of Kathakali. This mirroring process involved an observation of the teacher’s action by the learner and then a performance of that observed action. This intimate encounter, often in a small room within the teacher’s house, over months and years, was and still is an extremely sophisticated system of human transaction that sets up both the subjective and objective growth of the learner and the art. Over time, and through a sustained social interaction, understood best I suggest within the framework of an intersubjective “trading of places,” the learner gains the skills and ability of the teacher. In this article I examine what Richard Schechner suggests is a “deep brain” penetration in Kathakali learning. I attempt to de-mystify this “deep brain” process through a sampling of a number of significant neuroscientific discoveries potentially laying the ground for a deeper interdisciplinary enquiry. At the core of these arguments is my own subjective experience as a learner and my journey to becoming a Kathakali teacher or Guru. My personal experiences, neuroscientific ideas and Husserlian intersubjectivity are all harnessed to validate Kathakali mirroring as a significant actor training methodology.

In this study, I examine the Hindu performance called Kathakali, in the setting of Palakkad, Kerala, South India. My main focus lies on the experience of the audience. To do this I start with examining Hinduism in general, what the meaning of ritual entails connected to this religion, and the meaning of the body. Methodologically, I lead this dissertation along the lines of my own story in the field, to let the reader undergo my own experiences. In an often subtle way, the text provides all the information to the reader, who, in that way, builds up an understanding of Kathakali, and consequently, of Hinduism. Through my experiences and encounters, ritual practices such as puja, Darshan and Bhakti are explained. I argue that it is through a ritual mastery of these key concepts, along with other epistemological factors, that the audience recognises the play in such a way that it becomes an interaction with the divine.

Kathakali is a highly stylized dance-drama practice from the south Indian state of Kerala.  The paper explores the complex performative construction of the primitive and pain in a process that I term as performing disfiguration. To look at the process of disfiguration in the context of Kathakali, I will take up the kari-veṣaṁ (black costume) and the role which it represents, the rākṣasi (she demon), and her mutilated bleeding figure niṇaṁ, as my case study to conceptualize how Kathakali deals with the articulation/manifestation of disfiguration and how the carefully controlled body of a Kathakali performer negotiates with differing terrains and modalities of performing disfiguration. How Kathakaḽi, a ‘classical’ dance form negotiates the ambiguities of performing pain and the performative construction of the primitive.

Chenda is a versatile instrument and is used on various occasions, strictly Ritualistic to totally entertainment; both as a Leading instrument, a Rhythm keeper. Its usage in theatre is as the 'talking drum' that compliments with maddalam and with the body movements of the actors. This study analyses, Melam and its rhythmic structures, Melam is a type of concert presented at the temples in Chenda. This paper has formed from field notes and interviewing Chenda masters like Sadanam Vasudevan, Padmashree Mattanur Sankaran Kutty Marar and Padmashree Peruvnam Kuttan Marar.

The concept of Guru Shishya, the traditional Indian/Kathakali teacher/learner training methodology, was primarily a mirroring process where in, for a number of years the learner was learning the craft, receiving knowledge and skill by mirroring (and not imitating or mimicking) a realized teacher and practitioner of Kathakali. This mirroring process involved an observation of the teacher’s action by the learner and then a performance of that observed action. This intimate encounter, often in a small room within the teacher’s house, over months and years, was and still is an extremely sophisticated system of human transaction that sets up both the subjective and objective growth of the learner and the art. Over time, and through a sustained social interaction, understood best I suggest within the framework of an intersubjective “trading of places,” the learner gains the skills and ability of the teacher. In this article I examine what Richard Schechner suggests is a “deep brain” penet...

In Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of Tragedy) Nietzsche emphasises that "it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified." The fusion of existence and art, as suggested here, is predicated on a synthetic individuation of the Apollinisch and the Dionysisch that Nietzsche seems to tacitly contrast with an ethical-moral phenomenon. However, the prevailing social-conventional polarisation of values - especially of good and evil - are barely repealed in an aesthetic phenomenon. Nietzsche's later reflections in the middle phase of his philosophising point to the fact that aesthetics transcends the moral or ethical dichotomies. In my paper I try to show how Nietzsche seeks in his conception of the aesthetic phenomenon a certain substitute for the 'principium individuationis' that he inherits from Schopenhauer, and how this motif unfolds in his later works into a basic idea of "mask" that "is constantly growing around every profound spirit". Mask as principium individuationis clearly attains the status of an aesthetic phenomenon in which - as Nietzsche puts it - the artist himself becomes a work of art. This requires an extended study of the use of masks in aesthetic contexts - both in the Occident as well as in the Orient - from medieval bacchanalian masquerades or Theyyam to the modern performing arts such as opera, theatre, Kathakali, etc.

КАТАКХАЛИ́, кат­ха­ка­ли (на яз. ма­лая­лам «кат­ха» – рас­сказ, «ка­ли» – иг­ра), инд. тан­це­валь­ная дра­ма, воз­ник­шая в 17 в. в шта­те Ке­ра­ла. Вос­хо­дит к пред­став­лени­ям хра­мо­вых ак­тё­ров (ча­киа­ров), опи­рав­ших­ся на трак­тат «Нать­я­ша­ст­ра» («Нау­ка о те­ат­ре», ок. 1–2 вв.).

Interview with distinguished Kathakaḽi performer Chemancheri Kunjiraman Nair. Kathakaḽi a prominent dance drama form of Kerala. Surely age is not a restrictive obstruction for the legendary performer who will turn 100 years on July 4, 2015. Even at the age of 100, he had the unique capacity to engage the audience with his performance and over these eighty plus years spent doing Kathakali, he still entices the spectators with the exciting performance. His proficiency lies in the role of Krishna, a deity of Hindu religion. He had donned the role in more than 1000 stages.

Sur les bases des techniques de jeux décrites dans le Na ¯t. yas´ayas´a ¯stra, le célèbre traité de théâtre de l'Inde Ancienne, neuf acteurs incar-nent les navarasa (s ´r. n ˙ga ¯ra, l'amoureux, ha ¯sya-le comique, karuna-le pathétique, raudra-le furieux, vı ¯ra-l'héroïque, bhaya ¯naka-le terrible, bı ¯bhatsa-l'odieux, adbhuta-le mer-veilleux, s ´a ¯nta-l'apaisé). Ils portent une couleur, une gestuelle singulière fonde leur caractère. Deux autres acteurs : un enfant et un vieillard sont les personnages narrateurs. Dans un coin de la scène (jardin), un petit écran de télévision projette des images d'actualité. On dirait un journal télévisé. Il montre les aléas du devenir humain. Julien Touati De tout temps, les artistes ont voyagé, contribuant à déplacer avec eux les frontières des cadres de représentations. À travers leurs oeuvres, les dispositifs d'enregistrement, bien que critiqués comme instruments de la fabrique des pou-voirs politiques, n'en sont pas moins utilisés. Depuis la production d'archives aux documents de travail, les artistes contemporains s'approprient les rouages norma-tifs (figures d'exécutions, icônes, symboles) en vue de les convoquer au sein de nouveaux cadres de pratique. La transformation des signes devient alors l'un des objets constitutifs de leurs entreprises, qu'elles soient narratives ou formelles. Tel est le processus que je vais tenter d'illustrer à travers l'ethnographie du travail chorégraphique de Julien Touati et de sa compagnie AVS Road. Julien Touati est danseur-chorégraphe. Il a été formé au théâtre au CND d'Angers (centre national de la danse), puis il est venu s'installer à Paris. Il a dansé dans la pièce d'Alban Richard Et mon coeur présentée à Chaillot à

One of the most highly stylized of the Indian forms of dance-drama, Kathakali has also received the greatest amount of attention on the global stage. We argue that its international exposure began with the performances of Ananda Shivaram, as managed by the Australian impresario Louise Lightfoot, in a landmark intercultural collaboration. From 1947 to 1949, Shivaram, along with an ensemble of Australian dancers, successfully toured Australia, adapting a range of Kathakali dance-dramas to performance in an international context. Lightfoot organized and publicized the tour, translated texts, and explained the art of Kathakali—virtually unknown—to excited Australian audiences. Using newspaper reports, advertisements, program brochures, and promoter's notes, we chart the performer's and the impresario's journeys, how they fostered intercultural understanding, and how Shivaram became a cultural ambassador for India.

In Kathakali performance, the speech of characters and the narrative are conveyed through multiple channels – verbal text is sung by onstage vocalists while the dancer interprets the story through hand gestures, body movements and facial expressions. Through engagement with the work of Gilles Deleuze and analysis of the play The Dumb Dancer by Asif Currimbhoy, the co-presence of vocal sense and nonsense on the Kathakali stage is investigated as a phenomenon by turns sensationalized and de-legitimized in a postcolonial context. Sneja Gunew’s project of decolonizing affect theory, which raises the question of how to think meaningfully about affect beyond European concepts and terms, is taken up with regard to rasa theory, a key element of the performance aesthetics of Kathakali. Rather than viewing rasa as merely a prefiguration of Deleuzean (or post-Deleuzean) sensation or autonomic affect, a comparison between rasa and Deleuzean sense, defined as the evanescent boundary between propositions and things, is offered. Deleuzean sense presents an intriguing, albeit partial, analogue to rasa, a term that encompasses the process of tasting along with the essentially immanent nature of that which is tasted.