Happy New Year etc.

Hi friends etc.
let me tell you some more about this new place i arrive at 8 days ago. and, before i forget: tomorrow is my birthday.
This school (http://www.kattaikkuttu.org/youthts.html) is founded by a dutch lady, Hanne De Bruin, who studied Indology in Leiden. The gurukulam ("guru-family") I studied Kutiyattam at in Kerala, nl. Natana Kairali, (http://web.mac.com/ludwigpesch/Natanakairali_new/Welcome.html) is mainly focused on a solid long term training and artistic-stylistic perfection. In the school where I am volunteering now, the social aspect of the training takes a much more important place. They have daily training in the art form which is implemented in the regular school system. the children have maths, science, language etc. classes from 7.30 to 1 am, in the afternoon they have kattaikkuttu, drumming, harmonium classes. Whereas the Chakyars (kutiyattam performer caste) are Brahmans connected to the temple (some temples have theater halls inside, "kuthambalam"), and perform a highly stylized and century old theater-dance, the kattaikuttu tradition is also closely connected to religion but the performers are low caste. The form is much more folky and seems to attract more audience.
I witnessed a one-night performance on the village main junction which started after the deity had passed all the houses on a bullock chart, preceded by drummers and blowers and a handful of drunk men. The inhabitants gave offerings when the deity passed by. Terrified babies started crying when given to the ceremony masters on the chariot and lifted up to see the god, adorned with garlands and balloons. A short pose under the strong spotlight and eyes of all present downstairs, for the photographer in front of the oxes. Young men would climb up the chart an pose, young married couples would give each other a garland and donate a golden neckless to the deity(or ceremony masters...?) and grey-haired women with backs bent like hooks would be led out of their houses to great the god with all sincerity old age can offer. Around 10 pm, the performance starts. It goes on non-stop till 6 am, telling a Mahabharata story(Indian epic), with many repetitive dance steps and melodies, musicians who sit at the back of the stage for 8 hours in exactly the same position. 2 light bulbs hung from a wooden frame light the scene. A smart butter-besmeared piece of newspaper next to the bulbs catches the flies and mots swingingly. Next to the stage is a tiny temple and all the villagers sit -some sleeping on the sand, others watching the character's fate anxiously or laughing with the clowns silly jokes- round the stage in a big circle. I am very tired and fall asleep all the time, sitting in an uncomfortable position(westerners are not used to sit on the floor, are they?). From time to time a drunk guy or an old lady walks up the stage and gives the present actor some money after praising him. The actor bows thankfully, gives the money to his companions at the back and proceeds the play.
This involvement of the society was never there in the kutiyattam i saw. Not even in the temple performances, which seem to have been packed 30 years ago. Has it become to boring? Is it to difficult to understand or did it become property of intellectuals? Does the uprising of television play a big role? What about religious life? Kerala is much more conservative than Tamil Nadu, but there I was in a mid-range and rich city, here the performance took place in a poor village on some distance from the city. brrrrrrrrrrr time to go
tood'loo (to the loo?)
hughug kisskiss have a great time!