Kerala Kalamandalam — Day with the Masters tour

Thirty kilometres north of Thrissur in the southern Indian state of Kerala, close to the Nila river (also known as Bharathapuzha), is the small town of Cheruthuruthy (also known as Vallathol Nagar).

This is the home of Kerala Kalamandalam, an art and culture deemed university dedicated to preserving and furthering the traditional art forms of Kerala.

Started in 1930 by poet Vallathol Narayana Menon and his associates, Kalamandalam offers training in a range of performing arts such as Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Thullal, Kutiyattam, Carnatic Music, Mridangam, and Kerala percussion instruments like Chenda, Maddalam, Timila, and Mizhavu.

A residential institution that democratised the performing arts by opening admissions to students from all walks of life, Kalamandalam offers a Day with the Masters guided tour in which visitors are taken to the various classes being held in the campus.

Over a three-hour walk around the large campus, you get to sit in on a wide range of classes from different dance forms to instrumental and vocal music to makeup and costumes.

Where possible, the teachers talk to you about their specialisations. For example, in one classroom as students practiced kathakali makeup on earthen pots, the master traced the history of how the art has changed over the decades and showed us carefully preserved wasp wings in iridescent colours that were part of the kathakali headgear in yesteryears. Today, some of those ingredients have been replaced by modern equivalents but the connection to nature and the elements continues to be a strong theme.

Unlike some other dance schools, say a Kalakshetra in Chennai that are located in metropolitan areas, Kalamandalam has a spare feel that is almost monastic in simplicity. While that is good for its gurukul culture of a residential school away from the distractions of the city, it may well be a hurdle to attracting talent. To that end, the recent appointment of Mallika Sarabhai, a highly accomplished dancer and choreographer with top notch management credentials, as chancellor, might do the institution a world of good.

(All photos and videos by the author.)

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