If it’s true that art students constantly search for the
authentic, they might want to take a break on Oct. 22. In Royce
Hall, “Masked Rituals of Kerala, India” might just be
the most authentic thing in Los Angeles on a Friday night.
Ravi Nair and his dance practitioners from Kerala are coming to
UCLA for part of their first tour in the United States. The dancers
will perform two stories from the Theyyam dance ritual, a living
tradition unchanged in the past 800 years.
When not on tour, Nair and his dancers practice Theyyam in the
rich, green valleys of Kerala, in southwest India. The spiritual
aspect of this visually elaborate dance distinguishes it from
Kathakali, Kerala’s other known dance practice.
“You know the word Theyyam is also God, but not in the
universal sense,” Nair said. “The Theyyam reappears as
a protector for the people.”
The Theyyam ritual is a dance performance in which the Theyyam,
gods or significant people in the village who died a tragic death
return and inhabit the performers during the dance.
“The performer is like a medium on which the Theyyam is
dancing,” Nair said.
During a performance, the Theyyam dance to retell stories of
their lives, which results in a spiritual transformation in the
audience and performer, Nair said. In one dance, a girl from the
village is shunned when her family learns she is no longer a
virgin. Not wanting to go to a lower caste, she walks into
fire.
“Her soul reached the other world in the heaven. The north
shiva received her and gave her the form of goddess and sent her
back to earth to perfect people,” Nair said.
On Friday, she returns to earth to perform a collection of
memories from her childhood. In the dance, the virgin receives her
signs of goddess and blesses the people.
“The concept is that the Theyyam is seeing people and
people are seeing the Theyyam, and this is what we consider the
performance, this meeting,” Nair said.
The complex sacred aspect of the dance blurs the line between
dance performance and religious ritual.
David Gere, a world arts and cultures professor, who spent last
year in India as a Fulbright scholar, explained that the ritual
performance in a theater setting is exciting because it is where
the transformation of the ritual takes place.
“The performance opens up exciting possibilities in the
audience to see the dance, not in a temple, but here, in the
western theater, a space where transformation takes place on
stage,” said Gere.
Transformations are part of the allure of Theyyam dance. The
audience has the opportunity to witness a ritual of dancers
shifting consciousness to become the Theyyam.
The metamorphosis from performer to Theyyam is visually
stunning, enhanced by elaborate costumes. The ancient tradition of
body paint, immense headdresses and jewelry compliment the intense
physical dance.
“There is a social interaction between the Theyyam and the
people, so people used to go to the Theyyam with their problems.
Social, family, health problems are all solved by the Theyyam and
the blessings of the Theyyam,” Nair said.
A performance in a theater in the West will inevitably vary from
the performances in the Theyyam shrine. But Nair believes his
performance is guided by the Theyyam to be as true to the ritual of
the valleys of Kerala as possible.
“It is a very complicated process because many parts of
the ritual we cannot do here because it takes many days,”
Nair said. “At the same time, we cannot deny invitations. So
when we get an invitation, we have to follow signs. It is whether
the Theyyam want to go or not, not if we want to go.”