Draupadi’s Flamenco Taps

This episode of Mahabharata will be seen through a rare Flamenco-Kathakali performance in the dance-drama The Killing of Dussassana. Brought to India as part of the Delhi International Arts Festival,the project is a brainchild of Cesar Lorente Raton,a Spanish theatre person who created the fusion in 2009. “To my knowledge,this is the first such fusion,” says Raton,who has studied and practised theatre in London and Madrid,and has been working with the Kerala Tourism in Spain since 2004. “A few years ago,I came to Kalamandalam in Kerala and discovered Kathakali there. They performed the episode of the killing of Dussassana,as this is one of their most-performed pieces from the Mahabharata. That’s when I thought this can be done in Flamenco as well,in a way that doesn’t disturb its essence,” he adds.

Raton’s unconventional theatre sensibilities enabled him to see the opposite forces of Flamenco and Kathakali as a coherent one. For the performance,he has focussed on gender. “While Kathakali is traditionally a male-dominated performance,Flamenco is female-dominated. So the male dancers are Kathakali artistes while the female dancer is a flamenco artiste,” explains the 38-year-old. While Raton conceptualised the project,Kalamandalam Bijukumar — a student at Kalamandalam who plays the role of Bhima — is the artistic director of the Kathakali portion. The performance first made its mark in 2009 when it was performed in Spain at National School of Drama,Murcia.

The Delhi performance will have interesting live music — with Julian Vaquero on guitar,a Flamenco percussion box and the Kathakali instruments of chenda and madhalam. The music — with the Indian and the Spanish troupe performing together for the first time — lends an unusual but composite sound to the production.

As Raton takes a break from an exhausting rehearsal session,he explains the dilemma that comes while merging two distant dance forms. “The Kathakali percussionist is used to the Kathakali dancer’s footsteps,but in Flamenco,the woman is the boss,” says the Madrid-based artiste,adding that the Flamenco choreography has been left solely on the Madrid-based artiste,Tamar Gonzalez.

With support from Kerala Tourism,the fusion is also an attempt to contemporise the two forms and to carry out a universal message. “It’s the universal theme around women being mistreated,of wars being fought over them and conflict being created by using them. The essence is easy to understand and it may be gory but in the end,theatre becomes a metaphor to convey such messages,” says Raton.

Though there is only one Indian performance slated,the troupe hopes to gain recognition and financial support in order to take the performance to other parts of the country and abroad.

The Killing of Dussassana will be staged at Kamani Auditorium on Sunday at 7 pm. Contact: 43681907