India
Kathakali
December 2006, Orissa
Image: The Kala Chethana Kathakali Company
India is an amazing country! It is full of wonderful colours and people. It is very warm here and Jake has to put on a lot of sun cream so he does not burn! We are staying in Orissa and last night we visited the Konark Sun Temple for the annual Konark Dance Festival which last for three whole days! The temple is built from black granite and is dedicated to the Sun God. It has the most wonderful carvings on both the inside and outside and is a world heritage site. This means that it is one of the most important cultural sites in the world!
We have been watching lots of different forms of Indian dance and are learning all about Kathakali, one of the oldest forms of theatre in the whole world! We were lucky enough to see a performance by The Kala Chethanna Kathakali Company who are visiting Orissa this month. They are from Kerala in the south of India which is where Kathakali originated. Kathakali is a combination of music, dance, painting and acting. It is taken very seriously by the performers and seen as an act of devotion. Its themes are based on Hindu Mythology with actors re-enacting stories from 2,000 years ago. In fact, Kathakali actually means Story Dance.
The Kathakali make-up is very interesting – they wear a lot of it and it takes about 3 hours to put on! The performers play characters from 3 different worlds the upper (Gods), the middle world (Humans) and the nether world (Demons). The colour of the characters make up is often based on which world the characters are from. The faces of noble characters such as good kings are green and extremely angry or evil characters often wear red and have a long beard. People who live in forests like hunters have black make up while women have yellow faces. They also wear enormous elaborate head dresses which are very sacred to the performers. The amazing costumes help to make the dancers look different from normal humans. You are not allowed to speak to the actors on their way to the stage as nothing must disturb them as they prepare mentally for their role.
Kathakali uses gesture and some gestures can represent a whole sentence or a story. This means that each movement is very important and full of meaning. The movements and footwork look very hard and the performer never stands completely straight. The feet are also never flat on the ground but they always look balanced. The dancers are very flexible and go through an intense training from a very young age.
The orchestra accompanying the performance includes two drums known as the chenda and the maddalam as well as the elatalam and changalam cymbals which sound out the main beat. There are also normally two singers alongside the orchestra. Traditionally, a Kathakali performance lasts through the night until dawn and takes place outside. We are really enjoying India and we’re hoping to fit in a visit to the Taj Mahal in Agra which is an enormous palace.
Take care
