Highlighting the issue of women being mistreated across the globe, Kerala Tourism will organise a dance ballet in the city on Friday. A feminist take on Draupadi, the performance will be a fusion between the classical dance forms of Kathakali and Flamenco.
The hour-long show at Kerala House on November 6 will bring together Madrid-based director Cesar Lorente Raton and his team along with half a dozen Indian artistes.
The performance, titled ‘Draupadi’, is themed on an episode from the Mahabharata and will pool in techniques and aesthetics of the traditional Kerala dance-drama and Flamenco.
Cesar, who has been working closely with Kerala Tourism since 2004, says love, hate, anger are universal feelings.
According to him, the Mahabharata has many such stories to tell but he chose one episode, based on which he had seen a Kathakali performance, and used it to express concern over the horrific crimes against women across the world.
“Draupadi in the Vyasa classic was made into a commodity to be pawned during a gamble by her husband and humiliated in public. It shows how women were treated as objects as far back as 3,000 years ago. I chose this story as it is a universal theme that anyone can relate to,” Cesar added.
The idea of giving Kathakali a contemporary twist was given to Cesar by a Spanish theatre artist almost a year ago.
The event is being hosted by Kerala Tourism as part of the State’s Formation Day celebrations. It will have Spanish danseuse Bettina Castaño essay the role of Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava brothers.
Accompanying her will be Kerala stage artistes Bijulal N Narayana Pillai and Biju Kumar Gopalan Nair, and Sumesh Gopalan on the chenda and Rajeev Nalinakshan on the maddalam, besides Juan Gotan and Jesus Garrido on the guitar.
Singers Suneeta Rao and singer Radakrishnan Nanu will lend their voice to the act. The performance is at Kerala House on November 6 at 7 p.m.
The hour-long show will be presented at Kerala House
on November 6
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