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Saturday 1 October 2011

Kathakali - Theory and Technique

According to the philosophy of Kathakali the human body is divided into a number of minute anatomical units which can either function individually or together in combinations. Unlike the other classical dances, Kathakali places emphasis on muscles. The movement of the facial muscles form an important part of a dancer's training. Kathakali dancers make geometric patterns which are either squares or rectangles and this is how they cover space.
The dancer moves around in the mandala sthana position, in which the dancer stands with both feet apart, the knees turned out and the outer soles of the feet touching the ground. The dancer then uses his feet, hands and eyes to trace out imaginary shapes in space. The distinctive feature of Kathakali are its jumps, sweeps and leaps. The torso is used mostly as one entire unit although sometimes it is treated as two or three different units. Leg extensions are clearly demonstrated and to achieve them the Kathakali dancers must shift their weight from one foot to another. Whilst the dancers are busy with these
movements they must also perform elaborate facial gestures at the same time. The emphasis that Kathakali lays on the movement of the facial muscles like the eye-brows, the eye-balls and the lower eyelids cannot be seen in any of the other classical dances. All the movements are set to a given time cycle known as the tala . A unit of movement of the dance portion of Kathakali are known as kalsams . There are several nritta (dance) sequences in Kathakali which approach rhythm differently. Since Kathakali places a special emphasis on the dance-drama, the pure dance aspect of it is more of an introductory phase. Typical nritta movements are todayam and the purapad . These are set to a slow tempo in the metric cycle and generally there are limited hand gestures. We shall now move on to the abhinaya (drama) portion of Kathakali.
One can broadly divide the presentation of the abhinaya into three stages.
-Word to word synchronization -Interpretation of a full line -Following the singer
There is also a technique in which the dancers simply use the words as a starting point and then displays their improvisations. This is known as the choliapattam and is the ultimate test of a dancer's imaginative capacity. There is also a technique known as the vyabhicahri in which the dancer is required to invoke a dominant move known as the sthayibhava . The dancer presents different movements all revolving on the same theme.
Kathakali assigns great importance to hand gestures ( hastas ). These hastas can be used in different permutations and combinations to convey the meaning of a vast number of words. A dancer can communicate, in addition to words, full sentences, verses, moods and even states of being.
The Kathakali method of presenting drama is different from that of the other dance forms. In Kathakali the dancers are not narrators but actors and each dancer presents a particular character. The stories are usually taken from ancient Indian texts and mythologies. A drama is composed with various characters, essentially they can be divided into the heros and the villains who face one another in the dance. The heros are usually Gods or demi- Gods and these characters are calm and good natured. They are depicted to show grace and valour but never fear or disgust. When these characters are angry they assume the state of raudra rupa or the mood of anger and can become violent enough to kill the villains. The anti-heroes or villains depicted in Kathakali are either human or demon. They are depicted as negative and evil forces who are aggressive, treacherous and ferocious. Besides the above two character types, recitals are also done depicting humorous scenes or scenes in which characters like a half man and half bird take part.
ese characters are calm and good natured. They are depicted to show grace and valour but never fear or disgust. When these characters are angry they assume the state of raudra rupa or the mood of anger and can become violent enough to kill the villains. The anti-heroes or villains depicted in Kathakali are either human or demon. They are depicted as negative and evil forces who are aggressive, treacherous and ferocious. Besides the above two character types, recitals are also done depicting humorous scenes or scenes in which characters like a half man and half bird take part.

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