Rachel Frick Cardelle

The next performing arts offering at Hartwick College brings Kathakali to the Slade Theatre. If you know what Kathakali is, you’re a step ahead of where I was when Prof. Barby Kahl told me about this upcoming event. Rather than you having to hop on a search engine to look it up, let me share with you what I have learned from my conversation with Prof. Kahl and some background information she shared with me. Kathakali is a classical dance theater form that originates from Kerala, India, dating back to the 17^th century. The literal translation of Kathakali is “story-play” and involves highly stylized, elaborate make-up and costumes, and the retelling of great Indian Epics through dance. 

That is as much as you need to know to enjoy this evening as the first half hour of the evening will be a presentation from V. Kaladharan explaining the Kathakali performance the audience is about to see. The last hour and a half will be a Kathakali demonstration by Kalamandalam Manoj Kumar, who spent six years studying the dance form. The make-up and costume Manoj will have on for the performance here will reportedly take four hours or more to put on! 

This critically acclaimed pair, Kaladharan and Manoj, have come from Indian and are touring throughout the country. Prof. Kahl has worked hard to bring this performance to Oneonta. In her introductory theater courses, she includes theater traditions beyond Western civilization to provide students with a richer understanding of this art form. In the Asian traditions, her students may study Japan’s Kabuki, Noh, or Bunraku traditions, China’s Beijing Opera, or India’s Kuddiyattum or Kathakali theater. But it is one thing to study these traditions and another to see them performed. So when Barby heard positive reviews from a colleague at another college about this Kathakali troupe and that the pair were coming back to the U.S., she applied for a small grant from Hartwick College’s Foreman Institute of Creative and Performing Arts to bring them here.

Fortunately for those of us living in the area, we can also attend this performance — free of charge — offering us all the opportunity to further both our pursuit of lifelong learning and entertainment.  The lecture and performance begins at 7 p.m., Thursday, October 12^th at the Slade Theatre in Yager Hall on the Hartwick Campus.  

Originally published in Freeman’s Journal, Hometown Oneonta and on AllOtsego.com