Kerala   

Girls outshine boys again

Win honours in folk dance contest in State Schools Arts Festival

The girls saved the day in the end. Like the boys before them, they too might have been guilty of repetitiveness, but they gave plenty to cheer about for a huge crowd that thronged the Police Maidan in Kannur on Saturday to watch the folk dance, the major event on day four of the State Schools Arts Festival.

It was not just the audience that was pleased with the girls' efforts.

The judges gave them a perfect 10 too. All the competitors - there were some 20 of them - were given `A' Grade.

The main problem with the boys was that their choice of themes was just too repetitive and tested the patience of the spectators.

Of course repetitiveness has always been a bane of this dance form in all festivals like this, but the competition at the Police Maidan on Saturday will take some beating. For the majority of the participants there were just two themes - the child beggar and the folk physician.

A few of the boys did dare to experiment, including two who played female roles - but, perhaps not surprisingly, they chose the same theme, the sad tale of a woman who is forced to make her children work, with disastrous consequences.

To be fair to the boys, most of them did not dance badly, but their themes let them down.

Often you had to watch the same theme performed back-to-back, often with almost the same costume.

"I cannot recall any other folk dance competition as repetitive as this one," said Suresh, who has been a close follower of the dance competitions at the school festivals for the last many years.

The girls provided a lot more variety. And with most of them blessed with pleasing stage presence, they were a joy to watch.

There were identical themes, yes, but there were also different characters and tales.

Pulluvathi, Panathi, Kalliyankattu Neeli, the fisherwoman, the Namboodiri girl who finds a husband from a lower caste and even a woman who runs a food joint on the street were there.

"I think it was the use of CDs, instead of live music, that led to the lack of variety in folk dance," said K.T. Usha, the `Kalathilakam' of 1983, who won this event six years in a row.

"You cannot blame the children, though I thought some of them could have used less of drama and more of folk in their presentations.

And some could have chosen more colourful costumes," she said.

P.K. AJITH KUMAR

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