英語で読むデザイン⑤ 目が踊り、顔が話す？インドのダンス『Kathakali 』

Kathakali – Eyes dance, face speaks!
※失礼しました。こちら翻訳編ではありません。（3/27 17:30修正）

Kathakali is a form of classical dance from Kerala, India. It is a genre of performing arts where stories are told through a dance drama especially facial gestures. So enigmatic is this performance that tourists from all over the world flock to Kerala to watch this opera.
The dance form incorporates both traditional and modern themes. The traditional themes revolve around folk tales, mythological stories, religious legends, and ancient stories. The contemporary themes have Shakespeare and modern stories. The dance was always performed by men but in modern compositions women are involved as well.

The roots of the dance can be traced to 500 BCE. In the earlier days the performances were very long, performed for nights together, with brief interludes for the viewer and the artists. The modern performances are shorter. The most striking part of the dance performance is the elaborate makeup and the eye expressions. The make-up has a particular style and an identity. Seven basic types of make-ups are used and the colours are made predominantly from rice paste and vegetable colours. The make-up indicates the characters and has a code. Red is a code for someone with an evil streak, green for a hero, black for forest dwellers, yellow is for monks and so on. The garments too have a code for communication.

A Kathakali performance takes a lot of practice and some artists are known to practice for years before they perform on stage. The actors speak in a sign language where, the dialogue is communicated through hand gestures and emotions are expressed through eyes. There are nine facial expressions, that an artist masters, through facial control, in order to express emotions in a play.

Music is what connects the pieces of a performance together. Music is also used to express the mood of the play. Many musical instruments are used in kathakali which shows similarities to Kabuki, the Japanese art form.

A performance that pieces together dance, drama, music and emotions, Kathakali is one dance form that one must watch, when in India.