| « Previous | Home | Next » | ottomthullal dancer 10 June, 2006 |
 photo: david lindley we were very priviledged to have this little girl dance for us one evening. the famous dance in the area, kathakali is normally acted/danced by men only, but the dance she was going to perform is. a more local, but related, version called ottomthullal we heard that she has been training since the age of 5 (she is now 13) and she has to remember a huge repetoir of steps, song and - most important of all - facial expressions. the dancers train their eyes so that they almost appear at times to bulge out of their sockets (often they are very bloodshot as a result); the features are heavily emphasised as it is the facial and co-ordinated eye movements that are considered most important in the dance. the make up alone can take well over an hour to put on. the dances concern themselves (inevitably) with the lives and adventures of various hindu deities and can take up to 12 hours to perform. fortunately we had our own personal western version abridged at a very reasonable 45 minutes! | |
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Posted by davidlindley Archived under: india, people |
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