Seminar on Asian and African Performing Arts

By Clara Brakel

Following the official welcome by Professor W.L. Idema of the Board of the IIAS, the Kattaikkuttu play 'The Five Elements' was performed by South Indian actors and musicians. A group of outstanding performers from different companies was especially selected for this first European tour on request of the Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarcci Munnerra Sangam. On Wednesday May 10, they performed an experimental play entitled: Pancha Bhutam (the Five Elements) which was recently produced by the Sangam with financial assistance from the Netherlands Ministry of Development. Using the medium of traditional Kattaikkuttu theatre, the play focuses on environmental protection and social harmony.
On Thursday evening a second play entitled Karna Moksham, enacted a well- known theme from the Mahabharata epic, the tragic death of the heroic warrior Karna. The play was performed in the traditional Kattaikkuttu folk-style accompanied by South Indian music, featuring imaginative make-up and very colourful, glittering costumes. The role of Karna was enacted in a most convincing and moving manner by the main actor and director of the company, P. Rajagopol.
During the following reception and Opening of the Nonnensteeg Building the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, A. Nuis, emphasized the importance of the study of Non-Western Languages and Cultures for the present situation in the Netherlands as follows: "The most daunting challenge facing our domestic cultural policy over the next few years will doubtlessly be the successful creation of an atmosphere in which an open-minded, unthreatened cultural conversation can take place between the various ethnic groups."
This remark was in the same spirit as the issues discussed during the Seminar on Asian and African Performing Arts on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 May, as the information on background and contents of the seminar specified that: "it is obvious that the study of the dramatic arts in these regions will lead to a better understanding of Asian cultures and of the processes of change which were and still are taking place there now and in the past."
The theme of the seminar: The performer as (inter)cultural transmitter emphasized the important role of the artist in contacts between different cultures, While scholarly research on theatre so far has tended to highlight the dramatic text, or the performance as a product of theatrical activity, the social role of the actor, musician or dancer has until recently received very little scholarly attention. The result is a lack of information on the question how actors operate in Asian societies, and how their social function influences the messages they transmit.
During the morning sessions a group of international scholars discussed how different Asian theatre genres present cultural interpretations of social ideals and processes. Some lectures focused on the use of a particular type of performance by politicians in order to develop or to suppress certain ideas and social institutions in accordance with their needs.
In connection with the live performances of traditional Indian theatre (Kattaikkuttu) on Wednesday and Thursday evening, lectures on Thursday morning dealt with theatrical performances from South India and Japan, ranging from the arts of self-defense (Kalarippayattu) which serve as a basis for theatrical training (P.B. Zarilli, University of Wisconsin-Madison) and traditional shadow puppetry (S. Blackburn, SOAS) practised in Kerala, to the changing portrayal of female characters in Yakshagana folk theatre (M. Ashton-Sikora, University of California, Berkeley) and the social basis of Japanese Kabuki theatre in Hawai'i (J.R. Brandon, University of Hawai'i).
The innovative set-up of the seminar featured a combination of theoretical and practical approaches. Thus the scholarly discussions were combined with workshops on theatric practice in the afternoon: Hanne de Bruin (leiden University), assisted by the group of South Asian Kattaikkuttu actors treated traditional scene structure with dialogue, songs and accompanying music. The P.B. Zarilli conducted a class in Kalarippayattu practices with a number of enthusiastic participants.
Simultaneously, audio-visual presentations of African mask dances from Angola (G. Kubik, University of Vienna) and of a Kabuki theatre production (J.R. Brandon, University of Hawai'i) were shown and discussed with the makers, followed by a demonstration of string instrument traditions from Malawi by M.A. Malamusi (University of Vienna).
Throughout the day an African and Asian cultural and scientific market was held in the Nonnensteeg building and the Witte-Singel-Doelen building, highlighting several aspects of Asian and African life such as music, arts, culture and food. Poster sessions of current research by Dutch PhD students, including a CD-I presentation on Natyakala and Multimedia by S. Kersenboom, were displayed in the Nonnensteeg building.
Lectures on Friday focused on theatrical traditions from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Artistic contacts between different regions were discussed in lectures on the Central Asian background of medieval Arabic theatre (S. Moreh, Hebrew university of Jerusalem) and on the scene-structure of traditional Arabic and Javanese masked theatre (C. Brakel, Leiden University), while the socio-political background of a Javanese shadow play was analyzed in a lecture on the last wayang performance sponsored by Sukarno (P.Pink, University of Cologne).
During the afternoon session a workshop on the scientific and technical aspects of a Turkish Orta Oyunu folk play was given by a group of actors and musicians led by P. de Bruijn (Leiden University), while simultaneously some exciting new documentary films were presented on Bhuta Kola spirit worship (M. Ashton-Sikora) and on Teyyam ritual in South India (E. de Maaker, Leiden University).
Preceding the afternoon session a panel of Leiden University scholars headed by M. Schipper-de Leeuw and assisted by J.R. Brandon discussed the growing interest in Asian and African performing arts. The panel unanimously concluded that the field is important and needs more enduring support.