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Paper short abstract

In this paper, I explore the conceptual and institutional boundaries between Mudiyettu, a folk theatre, and Mohiniyattam, a classical dance tradition, both from Kerala, India. Such a juxtaposition makes visible the crossings—between ritual and art, village and stage, nature and institution.

Paper long abstract

In this paper, I explore the conceptual and institutional boundaries between Mudiyettu, a folk theatre, and Mohiniyattam, a classical dance tradition, both from Kerala, India. The categories of folk and classical are a staple of Indian cultural studies, even though the categories are porous, and constantly negotiated. My paper focuses on pedagogy and how to illustrate these categories in a class room, and on a field trip. Contrast is one technique. In particular, villages commission and stage Mudiyettu as part of an agrarian calendar, after the winter harvest, during a transitional time in February and March. It is a commemorative ritual drama that marks a specific but recurrent point in time. By contrast, artists perform Mohiniyattam, on proscenium stages and train in institutionalized spaces, emphasizing aesthetic refinement. Placing them side by side, interrogating them as productions within and without an ecology, as performances with and without embodied participation enables students to critically reflect upon the place of folk and mythic narrative in their world, through genre and performance itself as a lens, if not full a perspectival entity. Such a juxtaposition makes visible the crossings—between ritual and art, village and stage, nature and institution—that complicate the folk/classical divide in Indian performance.