Art route to social change

Be it Bharatanatyam or Tappattam, the performing arts can be a powerful intrument of social change, feels Taeko Kurokawa of Japan

WHAT IS Taeko Kurokawa from Tokyo, doing in Chennai? She is doing research on Tappattam, a folk dance of Tamil Nadu. How did she get attracted to this art? Says Taeko, "I came to Delhi on a holiday and stayed with my friends. I saw a sample of a village in the Crafts Museum, which made me want to visit villages in India. I have seen a number of videos and documentaries on the performing arts of India and learnt that many NGOs were using performing arts and theatre to communicate their message to the people. I wanted to learn how they did that. I visited Varanasi, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and met several NGOs. One of them was ARPED near Vellore headed by Mr. Prabhu. I was put in touch with them by Dr. Felix of the Association for the Rural Poor (ARP). That was the first time I saw Tappattam. The ARPED members had learnt it in Madurai at the Dalit Resource Centre at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary. I also saw a group in Thanjavur performing it and was fascinated by the beats and movements."

India and its culture were always in the background for Taeko, whose parents were deeply interested in archaeology and history. As children, she and her brother came with their parents to India several times, visiting museum after museum, which was not much fun for the kids. Though her parents never particularly discussed about India with her, it was in the air, what with the collection of books and artefacts.

Though she studied history at the university, Taeko was always interested in the performing arts and studied Bharatanatyam in Tokyo from Shakti, the daughter of a Japanese Bharatanatyam dancer. "She taught dance, yoga, body movements and exercises based on Bharatanatyam. Her focus was on her own creative dance and not traditional Bharatanatyam". Taeko had participated in several programmes with Shakti's group.

Taeko worked for 14 years with the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre of UNESCO (ACCU), Tokyo. She was dealing with development of learning materials for adult education and had travelled to different countries, but strange enough, not to India.

In Japan, the drum is a significant instrument, used in religious rituals and temples. But drum makers have been traditionally social outcasts. "The all-women Shakti group of Dindugal performs various folk dances, but the drum adds that special touch", declares Taeko. "I am interested in the role of performing arts in social life, though it may not bring social change and the sociological aspects in art. Some people treat Tappattam as a symbol of liberation. What attracted me was that such a simple drum can be so powerful artistically and sociologically". Sister Chandra of Shakti was initially taught unsystematically. She, therefore, made a study of different beat patterns; later Shakti and the Thanjavur group developed new patterns. "They say Tappattam has been influenced by other folk dances. The Tamil University has been trying to develop it into an art form with the help of the Thanjavur group. This art form has gained recognition in the last 15 years and is also being taught in schools". Taeko has not stopped with just observing but has begun to learn to play the Tappu or Parai, as it is generally known. The Tappu is quite heavy and initially she found it quite difficult to hold it.

Taeko originally applied to the Japan Foundation Asia Centre, and through a scholarship while she was travelling in India between March 1999 and February 2000, she came across a book by Dr. Jacob Srampickal in Delhi. He had visited several organisations 15 years ago and wrote the book on socio-action groups, who were using folk arts as a means of communication for social change. This was her starting point and she also managed to meet him and get his guidance; this was also the time when she learnt about ARPED. A friend engaged in documentation work suggested that she apply to the Musicology Department of Osaka University; fortunately for her, the head of the Musicology Department there felt her field of study, that is, the use of performing arts for social change, was an important one and allowed her to go ahead with it. Now it is her work, which brings her to Chennai periodically, from where she travels to Thanjavur, Dindugal and Vellore, among other places.

LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN

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