Kathakali Dance Theater Overview - Special Academic Support

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Theatre plays a significant role in the history of humankind. It is a creative method to learn about a specific culture and the history of its people. It can grab ones attention and bring entertainment, joy, or even sorrow. For example, India has numerous unique representations of this art, one of them being the Kathakali Dance Theater. This theatrical miracle is a form of classical Indian dance, with unique makeup and costumes. Because the history, performance style, music, and appearance of the actors are unique to the Kathakali theatre, it awakes the interest in it from the people around the globe.

Kathakalis history begins with ancient Sanskrit texts, where one can find the grounds for modern elements of Indian Dance Drama. The most studied Sanskrit work with some aspects of Kathakali is Natya Shastra (Anand 25). However, no one can accurately point to the time when the dance became a reality. Some scientists estimate that this form of modern art is more than 1000 old when Kathakali became a separate genre of performance nearly 500 years ago (Anand 41). Historically, it tended to perform near the temples, where anyone could have been seen despite the social standing of a person. Kathakali, which means story play, was a rather popular evening entertainment for all sorts of people (Anand 24). It combined music, acting, singing, and martial arts elements in one play. Originally, dance drama borrowed the plot from sacred texts and adapted it on the stage with the use of costumes, makeup, and appropriate facial expressions. All plays were written in Sanskritized Malayalam, the most popular language in Kerala (Anand 25). In the past, the play lasted from dusk to dawn and ended with the demons death. Kathakali usually has parts written in a unique format to distinguish the dialogue and the action scenes. The dialogue is in the first person, while the action scenes are written in the third person, which sometimes helps the actors to improvise. There are two distinct styles in Kathakali: Kindangoor and Kalluvazni, which developed in different parts of India (Gopalakrishnan 14). In Kathakali, there are three types of performers: actor dancers, percussionists, and singers. There are also several types of characters: kings, heroines, priests, gods, demons, demonesses, and animals (Gopalakrishnan 9). What is more, each character usually has its distinct makeup. Typically, the actor is born in a family of actors, and they are taught by gurus of this profession. Actors are trained for 20 years to be considered competent Kathakali dancers (Gopalakrishnan 57). During that time, they need to remember 500 different hand gestures (mudras) to play a single character (Vishnu and Boobalikrishnan 2018). Nowadays, there are professional schools that train future Kathakali artists.

In addition to that, the play always has several vocalists who sing along the dance-acting stage. They are the main narrators of the story; they deliver the lines by modulating their voice to express a particular emotion performed on the stage (Gopalakrishna 135). Music is an integral part of Kathakali Theater because it sets the mood and the rhythm of the scene. There are several universal music themes: Cempata, Campa, Pancari, Tripura, Atlanta, and Muri Atlanta, each showing a different mood of the particular scene (Gopalakrishnan 87). To set these moods, the orchestra uses several distinct and unique musical instruments, such as drums of different sizing (Maddalam, Centa, and Itaykka) (Gopalakrishnan 87). Of all classical Indian theatre, Kathakali costumes have the most distinctive features. Male and female characters primarily wear huge layered skirts, jackets, and many Indian accessories. All performers also wear an individual headpiece, which also functions as a way to distinguish a character from another (Gopalakrishnan 211). For example, female characters and demonesses wear different ornamented headpieces. Moreover, a demonic costume always weighs more than a typical god or priest piece, and it is colored in another tone. This layering and different coloring help see a performer better during nighttime and add more drama in the visual part of the performance (Gopalakrishnan 210). Nevertheless, the most unique piece of Indian art used in Kathakali is makeup. There are about seven types of characters, each of them having a unique kind of composition. Green paint is used to portray the gods, epic heroes, and evil kings. The only distinction between those characters is the red mustache. The orange face is for gods Brahma, Surya, and Shiva, while the White Beard makeup is for the divine personalities. Black and red beards are for evil people; the only difference is that one of the characters is a schemer, and the other is not. Black makeup is for demonesses, while orange powder is used for female characters (Gopalakrishnan 234). Moreover, there are some new things an actor should apply to complete the look: seed to make the eyes irritated and red, fangs for evil characters, fake breasts for females, and long silver nails for everyone to beautify the gestures.

To conclude, the history, performance style, music, and appearance of the actors are unique to the Kathakali theatre and it is created to entertain and grab the viewers attention. It combined music, acting, singing, and martial arts elements in one play. There are several types of characters: kings, female characters, priests, gods, demons, demonesses, and animals, each with distinct layered costumes and makeup applied. It is indeed an excellent performance for everyone to enjoy. It can be suggested that some of the readers may decide to become a Kathakali performers.

Work Cited

Anand, Raj Mulk. The Indian Theatre. Read Books Ltd. 2016.

Gopalakrishnan, K.K. Kathakali, Dance-theatre: A Visual Narrative of Sacred Indian Mime. Niyogi Books. 2016.

Vishnu, Achutha Menon, and Boobalikrishnan, Nadu. Gestures in Kathakali: A Study on Protagonist and Antagonist Performances in Stories. The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design, vol. 2, no. 3, 2018.

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