 Katha-story, kali-play – a classical theatre/dance style from Kerala, South India.
It’s roots go back a very long way, but what we see now days found its final form in the 17th century.
Kathakali mainly relates, in mime and dance, stories from the great Hindu epics – Mahabhatara and Ramayana.
Kathakali, of all Indian art forms, is the richest in ‘mudra’ – the hand gestures/language. Thanks to thorough body and rhytyhm exercises, kathakali training is also a gymnastic of the brain, as well as of the body memory. An actor must learn how to keep a constant connection between body and mind. By doing this training, the actor learns to remain centred and free, thus becoming master of his emotions, of each and every movement of his body and mind and does lose control on stage.
Work session
 Karunakaran’s vast experience of teaching in the West has enabled him to understand the best way of transmitting this difficult and demanding art to non-Indians, while still teaching in the traditional way. Work sessions are not to create professional Kathakali actors but are to initiate this magnificent ancestral art to students who are interested in learning about it and who wish to help them in their own work.
A work session consits of: basic body exercises, eye exercises, basic rhythms, feet exercises, face muscle exercises, basic face expressions, mudras (hand language), basic steps, acting extracts.
The ability to use the face muscles, the eyes, eyebrows and the lower eyelids jointly or individually is part of the training. Some of the basic body exercises come from Kerala’s martial arts.
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