Seminar, Issue 676: Why Dance? A symposium on the multiple trajectories of Indian dance traditions

ITI Director T. Sasitharan's interview with Kutiyattam master teacher Kapila Venu was published in Seminar (Issue 676, December 2015): Why Dance? A symposium on the multiple trajectories of Indian dance traditions.

"When I try to understand the construct of [Kutiyattam] as we know it today, three things come to my mind. One, the significantly long unbroken lineage of practitioners who for over two thousand years have brought about a certain distillation, sophistication and complexity in the theatre language, craft and technique; two, that this is an amalgam of the best of two worlds, the margi – the mainstream Sanskrit theatre tradition and the desi – the regional culture and aesthetics; and three, that unlike most of its contemporaries in other parts of the world, we see in [Kutiyattam] the presence of the female performer together with her male counterpart."

Read the full interview here.