Daily Archives: January 29, 2013

Kerala Kalamandalam Wrap Up

Local schoolkids attend the performance

The audience consisted of ourselves and about 150 junior high school students who were also touring the facility at the same time we were.

The performance was all in Malayalam, the local Indian language.
We did not understand any of the dialogue but the students liked it because the actor had them laughing a lot.
The Kalamandalam school has several hundred full time students. Studies range from 2 to 8 years, depending upon how far each student wants to pursue his/her art form to help preserve this important cultural art form, the government pays their tuition and the students pay only for their food & lodging.

This was a wonderful day & well worth the drive – which is another story in itself! 🙂

Wally

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kerala Kalamandalam Costumes

In this class students were learning how to make the costumes that the performers would wear. This work is very intricate, with carving, sewing, painting and working with gold foil.

A nice thing about this class is that it was very quiet and peaceful – especially compared to the Drumming classes!