Conversations in Mohiniyattam | 2016-17

Mukharika is an interactive lecture-demonstration series started in 2016 to initiate conversations in Mohiniyattam. The series explores the form, the ethos, the literature, the technique and involves a sharing of the artist’s own personal training and performing experience.

Mukharika is about speaking in the language of the audience, initiating dialogue and developing connections between the art, the artist and the viewer, in an intimate and immersive setting.

It is also about gradually bringing forth the aesthete in the casual viewer.

“I often hear people say that audiences are dwindling for classical dance. The general point of view is that people want to watch things that are more entertaining. My counterpoint is that a lot of the times people don’t know what they want. You have to show it to them. Classical dance needs initiation; it is an acquired taste. I believe it is the role of art and artists to elevate the audience. We have to develop an audience for Mohiniyattam or for that matter any classical art form by making it more accessible to them. Art appreciation needs to be cultivated and for that, the elitist attitude has to change.”