Thursday 8 October 2015

Koodiyattam


Kerala has contributed two of the eight recognised classical dance forms of India :Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. A less known dance form of Kerala is koodiyattam. On the 6th October, 2015, I had the good fortune of watching the enticing presentation of Koodiyattam dance by Indu G., as a part of the 3-day Devadasi Dance Festival at Bhubaneswar. Koodiyattam is a heritage dance form of Kerala presented in Sanskrit and was in vogue in the major temples of the State from the 9th Century and became a full-fledged dramatic presentation in the 15th Century. Complicated gestures of the face and eyes mark this form of dance. Here is a glimpse of Koodiyattam The nuances of gestures and subtle expressions of face and eyes are clearly discernible in the following video.