WHAT KÀLAI KÀVIRI-NI OFFERS…
… can be within the PE curriculum, drama curriculum, or out-of-school. It’s a freeing discipline, to develop individual movement potential and to express personal feelings, thoughts, ideas or stories while working solo, in pairs, trios, quartets and small groups. Young people will learn to create their own compositions and these can be presented later for parents and others in the community.
What’s distinctive ?
Kàlai Kàviri-Ni fuses south Asian aesthetic and aerobic traditions with those of the West. Hand and facial and body gestures from classical dance are then interwoven. Also, Asian folk props like sticks, ropes, cymbals, fabrics, drums, water pots, candles, masks and other everyday objects create a fresh movement vocabulary.
Underlying Philosophy
We believe that every young person can be encouraged to realise the full potential of their ‘multiple intelligences’. Fostering their kinaesthetic dimension can have transferable effects in a more balanced development, emotionally and in relationships, as well as in intellectual achievement. In practical terms, young people will gain in poise and confidence and expression, so reducing inhibitions and forming a more positive self-image. Increased spatial awareness, attention span, memory and sequencing skills can enhance creativity and imagination.
Workshop Programmes…
… are shaped to suit preferences; there is no single model. A series of weekly sessions of, say, two hours for a period of four to eight weeks would be the ideal. It could be a group of up to 30, whether as a complete class or a group drawn from more than one, and dressed in tracksuits or similar, in two separate spaces. Changing rooms are helpful but showers not needed – there is no exertion. No previous experience is assumed but different degrees of special needs would require discussion.
• body preparatory exercises - especially from Kalari martial
arts and Yoga;
• theme development – techniques and games from Bharatanatyam and
South Asian folk dances to express stories, thoughts, ideas and emotions;
• movement designs - creation of short sequences for perhaps two-thirds
of the series;
• final presentation practice – for perhaps the final quarter of
the series;
• cool-down and relaxation - sequences from yoga, classical and creative
dance;
• feedback - verbal articulation between group and facilitators;
all leading eventually to performance to peers, teachers, parents or others in the community.
Independent evaluation…
… by a university is being planned.
WHO ARE THEY?
the KALAI KAVIRI-Ni quartet…
…has a nucleus of two young and multiple first prize-winning dancers JESTY VARGHEESE and PRABIN VILLARIES. Both she and he have performed solo internationally and are staff members from the prestigious Kàlai Kàviri College of Fine Arts, southern India. The college is affiliated to the five-star Bharathidasan University. Tiruchirappalli, and is one of only two dedicated university Colleges of dance and music in India with academic programmes to PhD level. Each dancer holds a Master’s degrees in Bharathnatyam and is on secondment. They will be supported by two Master’s students as part of their College programme, who have also performed and instructed in the UK and internationally as Kàlai Kàviri troupe members. All have made the vital transition from instruction to facilitation through the work of two team animators;
Team Animator in India: TRIPURA KASHYAP…
… has an Ashoka International Fellowship for innovation in movement therapy. Based in Hyderabad, she conducts movement workshops throughout south Asia and overseas. Initially qualifying in classical dance at Kalakshetra Foundation, she developed with the experimental Chandralekha Dance Company and then studied movement under Grace Valentine in Wisconsin USA combined with an MA in Psychology. She founded Apoorva Dance in Bangalore and works with filmmakers, visual artists and musicians on cross-art creations, and was consultant for the Dance-in-Education at Attakkalari Centre for Movement, Bangalore for five years. Her book My body, My wisdom is published by Penguin (India).
Team Animator in UK: BISAKHA SARKER…
… directs Chaturangan UK, the agency for South Asian dance in Liverpool which works nationally. She is a performer, choreographer, researcher, educationalist, writer and video maker who was the first Asian dance Animateur for Merseyside, also linked with the national agency ADITI. She has worked regularly with community groups and, in partnership with parents, at all levels of education, from nursery, through primary to secondary, nationally in liaison with Akàdemi, Kadam and Sampad. Her innovative work, much with disabled people, has challenged cultural boundaries. Her inspiration has been for others to translate experiences and emotions into the shapes and rhythms of dance, always handing over ownership to those with whom she works. She learnt the Uday Shankar style of creative dance in Calcutta from pioneers Amala Shankar and Manjsuree Chaki-Sircar.
PROMOTERS, PARTNERS, SOURCES
Kàlai Kàviri Collegiate Arts (UK) Registered Charity No.1109544; administers performances and academic programmes in collaboration with local groups.
(Patron: Lord Navnit Dholakia; Trustees: Revd Susai Alangaram,
Barbara Butler, Keith Clark, Dr Ann David, Neil Hughes, Bernard Kilroy,
Dr Kandiah Somasundararaj).
Contact: Bernard and Janine Kilroy (joint Secretaries)
10 Hunts Common, Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire, RG27 8NT
email bernardkilroy@uk2.net
tel/ fax 01252 843133
website www.kalaikaviri.org.uk
MANASAMITRA, which partners Kàlai Kàviri Collegiate Arts,
is an artist-led organisation that promotes South Asian arts, skills
and heritage among UK communities.
website www.manasamitra.com
KÀLAI KÀVIRI COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS (Tiruchirappalli, S.
India) is the main source of the dancers; one of only two dedicated university
Colleges of dance and music in all India having academic programmes to
PhD level; given the accolade of ‘Best Cultural Institution 2000’ by
its State government, partly through recruiting two-thirds of students
from poor and outcaste families whereas classical dance has generally
been élitist; is part of the RC Diocese of Trichy and affiliated
to the Bharathidasan University.
website www.kalaikavirifinearts.com
2004 AND 2005 PILOT PROGRAMMES
When the full ten-dancer troupe was on UK tour during June/July in both years, it held twelve days of pilot workshops for dance in schools - mainly secondary, some primary.
Their success sprang from an ability to open the eyes of young people to a new experience, and from cross-curricular links which were both educational and fun.
The workshops included not just Performing Arts schools but challenging situations, as two City schools in Bradford where many students had not danced before and were culturally hesitant about it, yet within a short time were engaging with gusto and seriousness.
However, we weren’t satisfied. Extraverts were taking part; others were cautious. For the narrative dances, some were born mimers, relaxed, into-it, expressive, brilliant. Others were awkward and holding back; for them it was an opportunity missed.
To endorse ‘every child matters’, we’ve done some re-thinking outside the box of ‘cultural awareness’. Hence our major shift into Creative Movement Workshops - to maximise engagement with everyone.
