ABSTRACT
Kathakali actor training entails working on both embodied dance practices, as well as dramatic texts and stories. This chapter examines Kathakali’s training practices, and the adaptions made to them. The male-centric Kathakali depiction of love and desire sat uneasily on both Helen Smith and Peter Fraser vision of love as a more equal thing, between lovers. Peter acknowledged that with love and desire he felt he was only mimicking the externals, while in the scene of anger and disgust, he felt he was more involved emotionally, from the inside. Explaining to Helen and Peter traditional Kathakali stories and texts set up issues of intercultural translation. A mentalist engagement was needed, in translating theory to practice, in interpreting traditional Kathakali texts for performance, in contextualising for Helen and Peter the archetypical characters in terms of their social and historic location. The chapter describes and considers Helen and Peter’s performance work in the context of Kathakali’s gestures of embodied aggression.
