Kathakali dance of Kerala, famous for elaborate costumes and facial painting

South Indian dancers perform Kathakali dance. One can see the two dancers perform while other two persons sing. They are performing an act. ‘Kathakali’, an important genre in the Indian classical dance form, is associated with storytelling form of this art. It is the dance drama from the south Indian state of Kerala. Similar to other Indian classical dance arts, the story in ‘Kathakali’ is also communicated to the audience through excellent footwork and impressive gestures of face and hands complimented with music and vocal performance. However, it can be distinguished from the others through the intricate and vivid makeup, unique face masks and costumes worn by dancers as also from their style and movements that reflect the age-old martial arts and athletic conventions prevalent in Kerala and surrounding regions. Traditionally performed by male dancers, it developed in courts and theatres of Hindu regions contrary to other Indian classical dances which predominantly developed in Hindu temples and monastic schools. Although not clearly traceable, this classical dance form is considered to have originated from temple and folk arts that trace back to 1st millennium CE or before. ‘Kathakali’ incorporates the most intricate makeup code, costume, face masks, head dress and brightly painted faces among all Indian classical dance forms. It's unique costume, accessories, and makeup complemented with a spectacular performance, music and lightings bringing life to the characters of the great epics and legends attracts and flabbergasts both young and the old thus creating a surreal world around. The makeup code followed in ‘Kathakali’ conventionally typifies the characters of the acts categorizing them as gods, goddesses, saints, animals, demons, and demonesses among others. This classification of characters according to Zarrilli reflects the three Gunas namely sattva (goodness, virtuous, harmonious, constructive), rajas (passion, egoistic, dynamic, action, aimless), and tamas (darkness, viciousness, chaotic, destructive) of the ‘Gu?a’ theory of personalities that originated in the age-old ‘Samkhya’ school of Hindu philosophy. Source: culturalindia.net This footage is part of the broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The collection comprises of 150, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on 4K, 200 fps slow motion, Full HD, HDCAM 1080i High Definition, Alexa and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Please subscribe to our channel wildfilmsindia on Youtube www.youtube.com/wildfilmsindia for a steady stream of videos from across India. Also, visit and enjoy your journey across India at www.clipahoy.com , India's first video-based social networking experience. Reach us at rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and [email protected] To SUBSCRIBE click the below link: www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=WildFilmsIndia Like & Follow Us on: Facebook: www.facebook.com/WildernessFilmsIndiaLimited Website: www.wildfilmsindia.com