THE UBC DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES & INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC SOCIETY OF VANCOUVER PROUDLY PRESENT:
Kutiyattam:
A Thousand Years of Sanskrit Theatre
A PERFORMANCE & WORKSHOP SERIES BY THE NEPATHYA ENSEMBLE (KERALA, INDIA) | MAY 17-22, 2024
featured events
FRI-SAT 5.17-18 | SYMPOSIUM
Reading Body Language: Performance & Humor in Traditional Sanskrit Theatre
- Featured Speakers:
Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Kesavan Veluthat, Leah Lowthorp, Fabrizia Baldissera, Elena Mucciarelli - Location: 604 Asian Centre | 1871 West Mall | MAP
- Free & Open to the Public (Registration Required)
- Hybrid: In-Person & Zoom
SUNDAY 5.19 | COMMUNITY PERFORMANCE
The Vulture’s Murder: Jaṭāyuvadham
- Full Kutiyattam performance
- Date: May 19, 2024, 1-4PM
- Location: Fleetwood Community Centre, 15996 84th Ave, Surrey BC | MAP
- Organized by OHM-BC
- Tickets: $15
MONDAY 5. 20 | RASA WORKSHOP
Rasa and Aesthetics in Kutiyattam
- Part of RASA 101 Scholarly Workshop
- Date: May 20, 2024, 2-4PM
- Location: Asian Centre Auditorium | 1871 West Mall | MAP
- Co-organized with UBC Dept. of Philosophy (More Info: rasa.arts.ubc.ca)
- Suggested Donation: $20 (Cash)
TUESDAY 5.21 |
GALA PERFORMANCE
The Auspicious Flower: Kalyāṇasaugandhikam
WEDNESDAY 5.22 | ARTISTS’ WORKSHOPS
Traditional Rhythm & Percussion / Gesture, Movement, & Expression
- Training for Musicians and Performing Artists in Kerala’s Traditional Performing Arts
- Date: May 22, 2024 | 5-7PM: Rhythm | 7-9PM: Dance/Performance
- Location: Asian Centre Auditorium | 1871 West Mall | MAP
- Co-organized with local performance groups
- Donation: $20 (Register through ICMSV)
gala Kutiyattam performance
KALYĀṆASAUGANDHIKAM
The Auspicious Flower
Tuesday, May 21, 2024 | 7-10PM |
Roy Barnett Hall, UBC | 6361 Memorial Rd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 | MAP
Tickets available through ICMSV & UBC Chan Centre | $30 / Students: $15
BHIMA MEETS HANUMAN
In the great epic Mahabharata, while the Pandava heroes are in exile, their wife Draupadi asks BHIMA, the physically strongest of the brothers, to fetch her some delightfully fragrant saugandhika flowers.
On his solitary journey deep in the jungle, he encounters the elderly HANUMAN, the Hindu monkey-god who, ages ago, had been RAMA’s loyal servant in the epic Ramayana. He is also BHIMA’s half-brother, as both are sons of VAYU, God of Wind.
Lord HANUMAN is deep in meditation, and his tail blocks BHIMA’s path. A long verbal and physical battle ensues, in which BHIMA learns more about beauty, power, loyalty, and his true self.
And we, the audience, do, as well.
The Kalyāṇasaugandhikam is a vyāyoga (one-act action play) composed by Nīlakaṇṭha in perhaps the tenth century in the Kannur district of Kerala.
RASAFEST CONFERENCE
Nepathya’s performance of Kalyāṇasaugandhikam will serve as a gala evening event for a major SSHRC-funded conference hosted by the Dept. of Philosophy at UBC focusing on the classical Indian theory of rasa (emotive aesthetics).
For conference participants, Prof. David Shulman will introduce the performance tradition of Kutiyattam and explore the unique modes of emotive expression that are found in this 1000-year old art form. Prof. Shulman’s lecture will be from 4-6PM as part of the conference (registration required).
For more information on RASAFEST and to register, please visit: rasa.arts.ubc.ca.
INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC SOCIETY OF VANCOUVER
We are proud to partner with the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver to bring this rare form of classical Sanskrit theatre to Vancouver public audiences, so that we can appreciate the artistry and emotional sensitivities of this 1000-year-old tradition. Founded in 2009, ICMSV is a non-profit organization dedicated to putting on vibrant, educational, and inclusive community of rasikas (connoisseurs) of Indian classical musical and performing arts.
RASA 101 workshop
RASA AND AESTHETICS in KUTIYATTAM
A ‘Hands-On’ Lecture-Demo for Participants in the “RASA101” Crash Course
How do RASAS — essences or distillations of emotional experience — actually get generated and experienced in traditional Sanskrit theatre? In this 2-hour workshop, Margi Madhu Chakyar and Indu G., along with other master practitioners from the Nepathya ensemble will provide a live demonstration of the wide range of how rasas have been generated within the Kutiyattam tradition, and also give hands-on, practical training for scholars, students, performing artists and connoisseurs on various forms of gesture, movement, and facial expression that together constitute the “body language” of Kutiyattam, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
VENUE: Asian Centre Auditorium | 1871 West Mall, Vancouver BC V6T1Z2 | MAP
DATE: May 20, 2024 | 2-4 PM
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, SUGGESTED DONATION: $20 CASH
RASA101:
RASA 101 is a two-day crash course on rasa theory for anyone interested in getting up to speed on the topic, either with an eye to teaching it or to using it in their research. A set of readings will be assigned in advance, and the curriculum will blend short lectures given by the organizers with seminar discussions. The aim is to equip attendees to teach rasa theory in aesthetics, philosophy of emotion or, indeed, Asian philosophy. It also equips them with an understanding of the core concerns, concepts, and arguments that animate South Asian aesthetics as an entry point to research on rasa theory.
RASA 101 has reached maximum capacity, and REGISTRATION is now closed. All members of the public are welcome to attend the workshop, however, with suggested donation: $20 (cash only).
scholarly symposium
READING BODY LANGUAGE:
Performance and Humor in Kutiyattam and Sanskrit Bhāṇa Theatre
This HYBRID (in-person and online) SYMPOSIUM brings together prominent scholars of KUTIYATTAM and other traditional performing arts of Kerala in dialogue with TRANSLATORS of Sanskrit theatre to explore the cultural and literary value of the “body language” (movement, gesture, facial expressions, and rhythmic engagement) of Kutiyattam and related traditional Kerala performing arts, and how we might effectively connect it with translating HUMOR, especially in the popular Sanskrit BHANA plays.
VENUE: Asian Centre Seminar Room |
1871 West Mall, Vancouver BC V6T1Z2 | MAP
(OR ON ZOOM)
DATES: May 17-18, 2024
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC (TO REGISTER – click HERE)
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
- MAY 17] Kutiyattam and Performance
- Leah Lowthorp (Oregon) | “Embodied Cosmopolitanism” /
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan (Delhi) | “Performing Intertextuality”
- Kesavan Veluthat (Delhi) | “The Evolution of Kutiyattam”
- MAY 18] On Translating Bhāṇa Plays
- Fabrizia Baldissera (Firenze) | “The Experience of Translating Bhāṇas”
- Elena Mucciarelli (Groningen) & Adheesh Sathaye (UBC) | “Transcreating Bhāṇas: A Roundtable with Nepathya”
community performance
JAṬĀYUVADHAM
The Vulture’s Murder
Sunday, May 19, 2024 | 1-4PM | Fleetwood Community Centre, Surrey BC | 15996 84 Ave, Surrey, BC V4N 0W1| MAP
Tickets: $15, available through OHM-BC
Jatayu Stands Up to the Demon King
In the great epic Ramayana, while the great God-King RAMA is away, his innocent wife SITA is kidnapped by RAVANA, the Demon Lord of Lanka. As RAVANA speeds through the sky on his flying chariot, an elder vulture named JATAYU bravely tries to stop him from kidnapping the princess.
This episode is found in the fourth act of the Āścaryacūḍāmaṇi (“The Wondrous Crown Jewel”) a Ramayana play composed in the ninth century by the poet Śaktibhadra in Chengannur, Kerala.
OHM-BC: Organization of Hindu Malayalees
We are proud to partner with OHM-BC to bring Kutiyattam to public audiences in Surrey, and especially to foster increased synergies between the vibrant, diverse, and growing Malayali communities of the greater Vancouver area.
artists’ workshops
about NEPATHYA
NEPATHYA CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN KOODIYATTAM
Located next to an old Lakshmana temple in the historically important village of Moozhikkulam, Kerala, not far from Kochi International Airport, Nepathya has operated a traditional theatre, or koothambalam, since 1998, keeping alive the noted Ammannur lineage of Kutiyattam.
Led by Margi Madhu Chakyar, a living culture-bearer of this tradition, and his partner Dr. Indu G., an accomplished performer, scholar, and teacher of Kerala performing arts, (including Nangiyarkoothu and Kutiyattam), Nepathya is dedicated to preserving, performing, and teaching Kutiyattam and related arts in a traditional style, conducting formal and historical research, and fostering democratic relationships among its performing artists.
KUTIYATTAM: TRADITIONAL SANSKRIT THEATRE
KUTIYATTAM, or “performing together” in Malayalam, is the only living tradition of Sanskrit theatre in the world, and has been preserved for a thousand years through ancestral lineages of actors, or Chakyars, in the state of Kerala in deep South India. On a bare stage, actors perform ancient plays written in Sanskrit, using elaborate forms of gestures, facial expressions, movement, dance, and mime to “translate” the texts into a “body language” that anyone can understand. As they use their bodies to offer an intricate, deep, and thought-provoking commentary, the actors ask us as viewers to look into ourselves for answers and meanings.
Fundamental to this process are the mesmerizing, insistent, and rhythms of the mizhavu, a large copper drum that forms the backbeat of this traditional theatrical form, as well as the detailed, colorful, and extravagant costumes and makeup—both of these arts (percussion and costume) are also traditional cultural forms handed down ancestrally in Kerala.
JULY 2018: THE WORLD SANSKRIT CONFERENCE
On July 9, 2018, a full Kutiyattam ensemble from Nepathya performed a staging of Balivadham at the Chan Centre for 17th WORLD SANSKRIT CONFERENCE, hosted by the University of British Columbia, and organized in collaboration with the Indian Summer Festival. It was the first time that the 1000-year old Sanskrit theatre tradition had ever been performed in Western Canada, and with more than 800 attendees, it was the largest performance of Kutiyattam ever in Canada.