A teacher experience... not that bad after all, quite entertaining!

Description:

During classes we discussed on the different design proposals, we decided on the official selection of the cast and we finally made a slight change to the concept: “El destino no esta escrito, cualquiera puede cambiarlo”. Regarding the school rehearsals that were on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; we teached the assigned acting conventions as well as being part of them to have a full comprehension of the principles of Kathakali theatre. In my case, I teached kalaripayattu animal postures and purulia chhau dance style for the demons.

Analysis:

I teached the different body movements to the actors which were either kalaripayattu postures or purulia chhau basic positions to reinforce the physicality for the characters that are considered essential elements for the transmission of our tradition, Kathakali Indian theatre. Kalaripayattu are specific postures that bases on the fighting strategies of animals. From this, I discovered these would be perfect for the representation of monkeys. While teaching these movements, I explained the key information and specific animal postures of kalaripayattu like the elephant, rooster, horse and others. However, in my workshop on animals, I gave them liberty to create their own interpretations of animals, which were not available in Kalaripayattu whether than relying fully on the specific postures of kalaripayattu. I learned that personal perspective and imagination from the characters were needed to create a unique interpretation of the given animal. Due to the innovation given by the actors, we were able to create kalaripayattu movements with a spark of their own. As a result, that we must stay stick to the convention, however adding a spark of imagination by the actors themselves, we can manage to stick to Kathakali acting style because even though its their own created posture, they are still sticking to Kalaripayattu’s main element which is a fighting strategy of the animal.

In addition, this process was similar on Saturday’s rehearsal where my focus was not on the animals, but instead on the physicality of the demons using purulia chhau body movements that are based on martial arts movements such as kicks, leaps and more. I began by showing them videos exploring purulia chhau dance movements where the base position usually forms a square. A main issue which dissapointed me was that in that workshop was that my team was not complete which leaded me to the idea that without the full cooperation of the entire group, we cannot advance as quickly as we wish to because this is a difficult theatre tradition that requires a significant amount of practice. Since in Kathakali theatre the physicality, makeup and costumes needs to exert beyond the acting skills, practicing constantly the movements will be essential for the school play to advance its process and keep the essence of Indian theatre. By doing both workshops, I learned that actors require a huge amount of concentration because these postures are difficult to preserve. This made me reflect on the idea that each character needs to discover and identify their center to maintain themselves in these diverse positions either animal or demon because if there is the slightest change in the posture, it will not transmit the same character they intended to transmit before.

On Thursday, by being in Olenka’s workshop about Mayurbhanj chhau dance movements, I learned that the basis for body expressions is concentration. Simply, without the sufficient concentration, characters will easily reach failure and transmit the wrong meaning to the audience since they could not do correctly the posture assigned. We explored different base positions that required muscular resistance, especially in the legs. One essential thing I learned was that we need to overcome the tension even though it is too high. This means that although the specific movement required loads preservation and concentration, tension became to appear, instead, we need to overcome it and by the time our body will get used to it and not suffer the pain as the first time ever done. These positions suggested me the idea that Mayurbhanj represents battles with acrobatics and martial arts which I did not know before. To an extent, it is similar to purulia chhau movements but the difference is that I used and focused only on purulia chhau body expressions whether than the collective movement as a dance.

Finally, all the actors were able to reach my expectations, which were to go beyond their comfort zone to perform and maintain difficult animal and demon postures without complaining. In some few cases, some actors did not reach the necessary line of conservation and gave up. However, as I told them constantly to maintain for just a few minutes the vast majority was able to accomplish it even though it was their first time ever trying a workshop that in the original Kathakali preparation is 10-15 years which made me feel happy and proud for them. Although, they just believe they are a collective actor like monkeys and demons, but they are essential for the play because without them, the play itself would fail completely. We need to teach them they are important by being collective characters because they have learned the body expressions that are KEY for the play to maintain it’s Kathakali essence because without it, it wouldn’t be considered a worthy indian theatre representation.

Connections:

By comparing Olenka’s workshop on mayubhanj chhau movements for the great war and mine of purulia chhau, I noticed that both met the same base positions because they are two different variations of the chhau movements. This relatively connected both workshops since mine included the exploration of supernatural creatures such as animals and demons while Olenka teached  the heroic dance where these same characters would show their dexterity and agility skills while portraying the great battle. Another connection I made was that for the construction of the physicality of the demons, I took inspiration from the evil forces from last year’s play something wicked.  As inspiration, I used their low positions for the transition of the posture for the demons while mixing it with the square base position and the acrobatics like leaps that are from the purulia chhau tutorial to maintain the essence of Kathakali whether than loosing it. 

Reflection:

This was actually our teacher week. It taught me how to have a constant patience with each actor because each one has a different rate of learning. Due to the cooperation of the VI form IB students, we were able to fasten this process since they helped us direct and at the same time be our students since we taught them the acting convention. For the future’s benefit, the form VI ib students by acknowledging these conventions, they would help us by directing the scenes and verifying if the actors are accomplishing to excellence the acting convention while we need to act and produce the play at the same time. Their outer support has helped us in many ways.

I discovered that the teaching of the body movements has to be exquisite, focused and unique because Kathakali theatre involves mostly elaborate gestures and body movements whther than focusing on the dialogues. This is because, to an extent, Kathakali is a miming style of theatre because the style of the acting is important while the actual talking isn’t considered highly significant.

This also caused me stress because if I did something wrong, I wouldn’t only affect the learning outcomes of the actors but would affect negatively the play itself since it can’t advance without acknowledging the true principles of Kathakali theatre.

Now, these  questions have been haunting me... How can I teach the different body movements and postures as similar as posible? I mean like the actual kathakali experts when i only get to teach them a month while professional kathakali actors have 10-15 years of preparation!!  Also, will they remeber the several different acting conventions of body movements i've taught them? Which would be the best and efficient way to teach them the movements to perfection if they can't practice at their homes or don't have that natural talent of preserving the posture?