On Stage: Performing Arts at our Oneonta Campuses by Rachel Frick Cardelle

Rich Dance-Theatre Heritage To Be Celebrated at Hartwick

The next performing arts offering at Hartwick College brings Kathakali to the Slade Theatre. If you know what Kathakali is, you’re a step ahead of where I was when Professor Barbara Kahl told me about this upcoming event. Rather than you having to hop on a search engine to look it up, let me share with you what I have learned from my conversation with Professor Kahl and some background information she shared with me. Kathakali is a classical dance theater form that originates from Kerala, India, dating back to the 17th century. The literal translation of Kathakali is “story-play” and involves highly stylized, elaborate make-up and costumes, and the retelling of great Indian epics through dance.

That is as much as you need to know to enjoy this performance, as the first half hour of the evening will be a presentation from V. Kaladharan explaining the Kathakali performance the audience is about to see. The last hour and a half will be a Kathakali demonstration by Kalamandalam Manoj Kumar, who spent six years studying the dance form. The make-up and costume Manoj will have on for the performance here will reportedly take four hours or more to put on!

This critically-acclaimed pair, Kaladharan and Manoj, have come from Indian and are touring throughout the country. Professor Kahl has worked hard to bring this performance to Oneonta. In her introductory theater courses, she includes theater traditions beyond Western civilization to provide students with a richer understanding of this art form. In the Asian traditions, her students may study Japan’s Kabuki, Noh, or Bunraku traditions, China’s Beijing Opera, or India’s Kutiyattam or Kathakali theater. But it is one thing to study these traditions and another to see them performed. So when Barby heard positive reviews from a colleague at another college about this Kathakali troupe, and that the pair were coming back to the U.S., she applied for a small grant from Hartwick College’s Foreman Institute of Creative and Performing Arts to bring them here.

Fortunately for those of us living in the area, we can also attend this performance—free of charge—offering us all the opportunity to further both our pursuit of lifelong learning and entertainment. The lecture and performance begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 12 at the Slade Theatre in Yager Hall on the Hartwick College campus.

Rachel Frick Cardelle covers performing arts at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College.