The
neoclassical dance thus retain not only
the essential flavours of the folk and
classical traditions but project distinctive
individuality of their own.
MEENAKSHI
NATAKOM
Meenakshinatakom
and Kamsanatakom are two crude
dance dramas which are still in vague
in some parts of Palakkad district. There
are some scholars who believed that these
dance are earlier than even Krishnanattom,
Ramanattom etc. According
to them, these dances are the Kerala counterparts
of Teru Koothu of Tamil Nadu, the
Veedhinatakom of Andhra Pradesh
and the Yakshagana of Karnataka.
But there are others
who strongly argue that these two dances
are hardly a hundred years old. Whatever
that may be, both Meenakshinatakom
and Kamasanatakom have the confluence
of the characteristics of Mohiniyattom
and Kathakali. The
lasya of Mohiniyattom and the thandava
of Kathakali are well mixed in
the dance sequence of Meenakshinatakom.
Even the Elakiattom of Kathakali,
male characters have to be done by Meenakshi
in Meenakshinatakom. The
songs are all a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam.
The make-up and customs
bear considerable resemblance to that
in Kathakali.
The
characters are all allowed to speak.
The Portuguese influence in Kerala helped
the spread of Christianity along the southwest
coast. As a result, a new type of community
was slowly brought into existence, which
being cut off from its orginal setup,
had to look upon the Westerner for cultural
sustance. Out of this situation
was born a new art form with songs, dialogues
and dances, similar to the miracle plays
of the West. They are
known as Chavittunatakom. The
stage settings, introduction of curtains
constumes, masks, etc., show the influence
of the West.
Genoa,
Caralman Charitram, Nepoleon Charitram
etc., are some of the important plays.
Contributing to the already rich heritage
of Kerala's dance art is the modern dance
composition. Although they
have no real roots in any of the above
mentioned dance traditions they mime the
characterstics of tribal, folk and classical
type of dances. They manifest
the growth and development of Kerala dances.
Here efforts are made to combine
choreography with classicism and fit traditional
dance partners into new moulds. It
has revealed a world of charm in its creation
bringing a refreshing originality, a delightful
native and a winsome simplicity. The
Western type of dance forms called opera
and ballet have come to be produced in
purely local dance techniques.
Opera
is a joint work of art produced by the
union of poetry, drama, music and all
subsidiary arts of the theatre.
Since
singing and acting are to be done by the
same person, the histrionic element is
relegated more to the background. In
opera, singers are often preferred to
actors. The opera incorporates
dances but the dance rhythm is not a continuous
matrix in which the drama unfolds.
Ballet
has this continuous rhythm, using expressive
postures and movements involving the whole
body. The mature gestural
language of the Kathakali tradition
is also mixed sometimes. The ballet
relies mainly on instrumental music.
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