UID:
almahu_9949386532202882
Format:
1 online resource (145 p.).
ISBN:
9781000213669
,
1000213668
,
1000213765
,
9781000213713
,
1000213714
,
9781003084105
,
1003084109
,
9781000213768
Series Statement:
Routledge Advances in Theatre and Performance Studies
Content:
This book tells the story of teaching Kathakali, a seventeenth century Indian dance-drama, to contemporary performers in Australia. A rigorous analysis and detailed documentation of the teaching of multiple learners in Melbourne, both in the group workshop mode and one-on-one, combined with the author's ethnographic research in India, leads to a unique insight into what the author argues persuasively is at the heart of the art's aesthetic- a practical realisation of the theory of rasa as first articulated in the ancient Sanskrit treatise on drama The Natyashastra. The research references the latest discoveries in neuroscience on mirror neurons' and argues for a reconceptualization of Kathakali's imitative methodology, advancing it from the reductive category of mimicry' to a more contemporary and complex mirroring which is where its value lies in Australian actor performer training. The Teaching of Kathakali in Australia will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and dance, intercultural actor training, practice-led research, and interdisciplinary studies of neuroscience and performance.
Note:
Description based upon print version of record.
,
Caste, untouchability and performativity
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Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Chapter 1 Mirroring not mimicking the master -- Kathakali actor training: key aesthetic features -- The sociopsychophysical and "the old social" in Kathakali training -- Kathakali in context -- A "practitioner researcher" -- Methodology -- Chapter 2 The guru shishya or master disciple relationship -- The imitative methodology of the guru shishya tradition -- Guru shishya in Kathak dance pedagogy -- The practitioner researcher in a one-on-one training session -- The basic posture
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Presence and Kathakali training: the basic posture -- Absence and Kathakali training -- Mirroring the Kathakali guru's basic posture -- Kannusadhakam: the eye exercise -- Chuzhippu -- Kaal sadhakam or footwork -- Mirroring the master: observing the master teach a star pupil -- Observing bodies in communion -- Kathakali's stable methodology of embodied transformation -- The guru shishya being-in-the-world, feet touching ritual -- Chapter 3 From mythology to reality: Western perceptions of the exotic Kathakali body -- Phillip Zarrilli and the de-mystification of Kathakali
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Zarrilli and his mind/body duality -- Left- and right-side stage conventions -- A separation of the internal and external processes of actor training -- Kathakali and the Natyashastra -- The sophistication of the untouchable theyyam performer -- Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret -- A foot-centric conflict -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Teaching multiple bodies in Australia -- The mirror neuron system -- The human skin and the act of empathy -- The imitative methodology in group work -- The intracultural exercise -- Chapter 5 Working one-on-one with Helen Smith and Peter Fraser
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Helen, Peter and I: working as a threesome -- Working one-on-one: an informal "daily" start to the work -- The mirror box -- Communing with Helen one-on-one: an episode from the author's "diary documentary" -- Theory of rasa -- Kathakali rasaabhinaya and the social nature of bhava -- Creative performances by Helen and Peter -- Working with Peter Fraser -- Peter's response to one-on-one training -- Kathakali mirroring and the mirror neuron system -- Chapter 6 Caste, Kathakali and its "gestures of embodied aggression" -- Background -- A case study: "The Flower of Good Fortune"
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Namboodiri dominance of the social weave -- Untouchability and the caste-based social weave -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7 Performing Kathakali in Australia -- Adapting the traditional training curriculum -- The Magic Hour and the innercultural practice of performing Kathakali in Australia -- Performing Kathakali's gestures of embodied aggression -- Chapter 8 Kathakali for the global performer and researcher -- Guru shishya: new possibilities -- One-on-on actor training -- Historiography of Kathakali performance -- Archetype -- Kathakali abhinaya and Stanislavsky
Additional Edition:
Print version: Raina, Arjun The Teaching of Kathakali in Australia : Mirroring the Master Milton : Taylor & Francis Group,c2020 ISBN 9780367539962
Language:
English
Keywords:
Electronic books.
;
Electronic books.
;
History
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Electronic books
DOI:
10.4324/9781003084105
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003084105
