Kerala Dance Drama

NOTE: For photos associated with this post click here.

Kerala has a vibrant dance culture that takes various forms. Kathakali is probably the most well known form (if you've read Arundhati Roy's THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, set in Kerala, you may remember the extraordinary scene where the twins, Esta and Rahel, witness a Kathakali performance). Over the next couple of days we'll be visiting two dance schools north of Kerala, but on our second night in Kochin we visited a cultural center dedicated to preserving and showcasing these dances. It's an extraordinary institution, particularly given the fact that while these dances originated as Hindu temple dances the institutions is owned and funded by Muslims. The place embodies the deep cultural paradox associated with the preservation and popularization of these dances, for the cultural center performs brief excerpts of dances for tourists that take them out of their context as temple dances that last many hours, (indeed, the scene in Roy's novel is about how the Kathakali dancers come to the temple to perform their dances after they've done brief snippets for tourists at hotels, in a way to do penance for having debased the dances). I couldn't help recalling that scene as I visited the place and watched the performances. The first photos you'll see if you have a look are of a Kathakali dancer applying his makeup prior to the performance. The rest are shots from some of the dance performances.