Tamil Nadu 2006 |
 |
Week 3Feb 25 2006 |
Spent the day in the foundation reading. My Austrian friend Veronika rang me to say there was another dance performance tonight, down near the big temple in Mylapore, an area I haven't been to, so I joined her in an auto in the evening to go and see it. This time is was a single male dancer. extraordinarily athletic, but not muscle bound. More like a gymnast I should think. He kept a fixed grin and had make up that would make a synchronised swimmer envious. I like the music, it is very hypnotic. Violin as the main melodic instrument, with a double ended drum and the guru, who seems to sing instructions, playing a simple pair of symbols. Another singer keeps the narrative going through out. The linkage between the drumming and dancing is very tight, for the whole hour of the performance. Much more interesting than the Keralan Kathakali.
 |
A driver in an Auto. He was interested in my camera as I was trying to use it to do a video clip (see Chennai street). The question about cameras is always the same, "How much your camera cost?" I'm glad I've got a tiny one that sits in my shirt pocket and looks non-descript. People with big flashy ones must get hassled all the time. |
 |
As I mentioned earlier, there is fire everywhere. Even at
the dance performances they have altars on the stage with coconut oil lamps
burning all around them. I remember reading in the news about a year ago of
a village school burning down during a concert with great loss of life. I
can see how it happens. If a lamp is knocked over, it will spread burning
oil everywhere. This charcoal brazier was outside a temple and worshippers ran their hands quickly over the flames and touched them to their eyes before they went in. |
 |
Even more fire. A pan of charcoal burning outside a brass goods shop. Often there are little pieces of camphor burning. One of the strangest little ceremonies was after the dance of the two young women. As we were waiting out side, a man came out carrying a coconut with a small oil lamp burning on it. He waited until the lamp burned out and then very deliberately smashed the coconut in front of the threshold to the auditorium. Then he came back with a large fruit like a melon, again with a small flame in a hollow on top. Again, he waited until the flame burned out and smashed this large fruit on the ground. What does it all mean? I have no idea. |
 |
The Auto drivers get in and out without warning. This one has just got out and wandered off whilst we are stuck in traffic. Hope he comes back... |
|
maledancer.wmv (260 Kb)
|
Another video experiment. This works best in Internet
Explorer and is a bit unreliable in Firefox. It should load and
open automatically. If it does run OK, when it is finished right click it
and click Play to run it again.
If it doesn't load and run, click the hyper link to open it in a media player. |