Dance

"A debut is seen more like an initiation into the practice rather than a full-fledged performance, after several years of perfecting the art, once the first ‘purappad’ (an invocatory ritual performance) is learned well. Then slowly the student begins to learn part by part and grows as a member of the ensemble."

"Kudiyattam plays, always based on classical Sanskrit texts, many of them composed in Kerala, invariably include a long nirvahanam or “retrospective” in which a character reveals, mostly by the silent language of hand- and eye-gestures, abhinaya, the long process that has brought him or her to the present moment in the play."

"This [Yakshgana] was the very variety of contemporary dance-drama forms of India."

"Yakshagana Badagtitu Baylata with its vigorous, and fast moving and yet intricate steps, sometimes rough, at other times gentle and delicate in their varied patterns, captivates the spectator and engrosses him in their essential rhythm and movement. It is in the sensual response of the audience to this movement, the beat of the drums and the pervading and persistent rhythm of the dancers’ ankle bells wherein lies the essence of this dance."

"Karanth made Yakshagana more popular through the ballet adaptation of the art."

"The Yakshagana belongs to the South Canara in the Kannada area."

"...that Yakshagana is not considered a classical style of music frees it from the bondage of rules and allows it the freedom necessary for a living art-form."

"The themes of all the dramas of Yakshagana are fights and warfare, stories of veera and raudra rasas from our puranic legends."

"The traditional Sanskrit play and its vernacular representatives begin with some preliminary benedictory music and dance called in Sanskrit purva ranga."

"The old female make-up was full of old jewellery with Makuta or Kirita etc., resembling female figures in our sculpture. The make-up includes masks also."

"The Yakshagana must have originally been a faithful form of Bharata’s theatre in respect of Abhinaya. As was to be seen till recently in Tamil street-plays, Abhinaya or Nritya must have been present to a large extent in the Yakshagana. But now, it has become considerably reduced, chiefly on account of the introduction of speech in an elaborate manner."

"The Yakshagana make up is as epic as its theme. It is decidedly more graceful, richer and more closely related to the ornamentation found in our sculpture than the Kathakali make-up."

"Though the dance with gesture (Nritya or Abhinaya) is not extensively present in Yakshagana today, the drama is remarkable for its pure dance or Nritta. This Nritta though not as elaborate and varied as the Tirmanas and Adavujatis in the |w:Nautch|Nautch]], is yet of a very attractive variety. Yakshagana is full of this dance."

"In South Canara, the Yakshagana is one of the two most widespread popular dramatic entertainments,"

"In Yakshagana style when the voice oscillates, that is, quivers back and forth from one note to another, the transition is smooth and the breath flows without a break."

"The vernacular name of the Yakshagana is Bayal Attam i.e. open-air play."

"The diction of the Yakshagana speech is exalted, strewn as it is copiously with good Sanskrit quotations. A high moral tone is se; fine truths and classic philosophic ideas make the Yakshagana a true form of liberal education, bringing to all the illiterate the essence of the wisdom of the Rishis."

"Yakshgana songs are written to be sung in certain ragas; each raga having its own peculiar ascending and descending scale."

"Karanth’s creation can certainly place Yakshagana in a still more elevated position in world theatre."

"The bhagavata will chose a Śruti note, generally the same one for all of his performances, before each performance...The baghavata sets this note on the Śruti instrument (now days usually a harmonium) and this single note is played in the background whenever the bhgavata is singing."

"...the vivacity of Yakshagana, including its costume, dance and music, deserved it to become the representative exhibition art of the State."

"The Yakshagana can be taken to be the common name of an old type of traditional, popular vernacular drama of South India, a name common to the three linguistic areas of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada"

"...there were two main forms of Yakshagana. The paduvalapaya form included two styles that is badagu thittu (northern style) and tenku thittu (southern style). They were being performed in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, parts of Chikmagalur and in Bangalore. The moodalapaya form comprised doddata and sannata performed in central and north Karnataka districts. As Yakshagana was widely performed in other towns and cities in the State now it would be an opportunity for the committee to identify it as the exhibition art of the State."

"Music is an integral part of Yakshgana...The words of the songs and poems tell the story. And the rhythm of the songs dictate the timing of the percussion instruments and the dance."

"Yakshagana is traditional dance drama."

"One of unique features of the Yakshgana is the high-pitched voice of the bhagavata."

"He [Shivram Karanth] rediscovered many ragag fs that were traditionally part of the Yakshagana repertoire but had fallen into disuse. He did away with dialogue, making songs and dance do its work instead. He added new instruments, linked dance rhythms and music rhythms, and searched for and trained talented young artists. Most significantly, he brought down the average time of a performance from eight to three hours, thus allowing Yakshagana to make its peace with the rushed modern world."

"Nirmala Paniker has done research on the Hastalakshana Deepika and by 1985, introduced a methodology for learning all the hand gestures in Mohiniattam using the Sanskrit slokas for the first time in the history of Mohiniattam."

"‘Mohiniyatta Seva,' suggesting its link to a temple ritual. “Unless this eye-catching dance form is liberated from the clutches of Carnatic classical music, its identity is at stake."

"...could rejuvenate items like Easal, Poli, Kurathy and Chandanam of Mohiniyattam that had become extinct."

"Prejudice against impersonating women and the fear of ridicule are considered to have contributed to the decline in interest of male performers. Perceived lack of feasibility and limited employment opportunities through dance are other reasons. I have a dance school and only three in a class of 200 students are male"

"In the year 2000, this dance form was declared a ‘major dance tradition of India’ at par with all major dance traditions of India, which are loosely called the Classical dances of India."

"Treatises belonging to the Sangham period shed light on this. Perhaps the efforts to link Mohiniyattam to Thiruvathirakali and Nangiarkoothu were a sequel to this research."

"The identity of any dance is incomplete without the music that accompanies it. The unique raga tala pattern of Sattriya music, the two categories of Sattriya vocal (raga based and light ), variations of presentation for different occasions at different sattras, musical instruments, as also unique features such as Gayan Bayan who sing, dance and initiate a traditional Sattriya performance."

"They [Attaprakaram of Nangiarkoothu] opened a treasure trove of mudras employed in this art form that could be traced to the ‘Hasthalakshanadeepika'."

"Year 1960 onwards, Mohiniattam, in spite of being a very old dance form, has started gaining prominence. It has spread from Kerala to other South India states, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and now, even Mumbai. I know many kids who are choosing to pursue Mohiniattam instead of Bharatanatyam."

"Mohiniyattam has gone through a renaissance many times. It had a renaissance under Swati Tirunal, then again at Kalamandalam and now innovations are being brought in. Kerala has so many traditional and ritualistic art forms, when compared to other States. Kathakali and Koodiyattam, being male-dominated, naturally enjoyed more popularity and for a long while Mohiniyattam, sadly, was sidelined. Thanks to the structure laid down by dancer-scholars such as Kalyanikutty amma, Kalamandalam Satyabhama and the efforts of people like Bharati Sivaji and Kanak Rele, the face of Mohiniyattam has changed…now Mohiniyattam has a good stage, both nationally and abroad."

"The practitioners of the arts [are] as being arranged in the alignment of a tree. The deep roots are the body of the sattras and the monks therein, who have preserved the art form over five centuries. The trunk is the monks who have renounced sattra life in their mature phase, after training authentically at the sattras and are now available without any religious duties and restrictions, for the promotion of the arts. The branches are many, and these are the urban, educated, often English speaking, articulate modern women who have taken to the dance in the last four decades. They have become the new voice for the form, even if their association with the wellspring, the institution of the sattras is merely formal."

"For centuries, when it remained a preserve of men, it followed a careful stance and kinetic demarcation between the sexes. This demarcation continues even today, enriching the grammar of the dance, although women have taken to the form and require no specific indication of gender roles."

"Like most classical arts in Kerala, it's the youth festivals that are keeping Mohiniyattam alive among the younger generation. Youth fetes are a good thing but they are just not enough for the future of performing arts. Now that they've taken out the Kalaparthibha-Kalathilakam titles and started awarding grades instead of first place, second place...in competitions, I find that it is actually a little demoralising for the young performers. After all, who doesn't want to win? They would have worked hard enough for it as it is. The government needs to be much more proactive. Much like they help sports persons get placements, why can't the Government support those who choose performing arts as a career? Not only would such a move be an incentive for people to take up performing arts but it would also ensure that the arts sustain themselves."

"The dance style is sensitive to the world, the musical note and the rhythmic beat. It treats the body in halves, with the lower part interpreting rhythms while the upper part moves around the arc and diagonal chords, to the melody. It has an abhinaya, or expressional tradition, that uses the body the face the micro-features and hand gestures in addition to costume to interpret the song, poem or the emotion."

"In the absence of a well-defined structure, Mohiniyattam had earned qualifiers like ‘poor cousin of Bharatanatyam, ‘an off-shoot of Kathakali' and so on during the 60s and the 70s. This had motivated quite a few dancers to make serious attempts to provide the dance form with an identity indigenous to Kerala;"

"...the relationship among the traditional forms of Mohiniyattam, Nangiar Koothu and Thiruvathirakali — all of which feature female artistes."

"This particular dance form is ‘non-texted’. Teaching and pedagogy has been through oral transmission, and memory has been the key-conserving factor."

"The distinctive Sattriya abhinaya defies elitist leanings by depicting activities like fighting, eating, slaying, killing etc. which were frowned upon by the Sanskrit texts."

"In the oriental art tradition, the relation between the Guru and the Shishya is exemplary. Among traditional performing arts of Kerala, Mohiniyattam along with Kathakali fascinated Western artistes even in the early 20th century."

"...the most beautiful and complete language of movements through which the Indian dancer provides the concrete manifestation of the inner state and vision of his/her existence, of the truth of all experiences, by art."

"The origin of thought and movement lie, in the case of Sattriya, you have to locate it in the deeply rooted, shared belief system of the ‘Bhakti Marg’."

"Hasthalakshanadeepika, the ancient Sanskrit classical text on the dances of Kerala, mentions 24 basic mudras or hand-gestures, which are in use in the classical dance dramas of Kerala. Mohiniyattam, in particular, uses them."

"The aesthetics of a dance form springs from the land of its origin."