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Premier academy
K.K. Gopalakrishnan’s “For arts’ sake” (July 15) has given a concise history of the development of one of the premier art academies. With the establishment of Kerala Kalamandalam, a new leaf was turned in the history of our performing arts. No doubt upgrading it to a Deemed University is welcome but how far is this going to help maintain a high standard? A new legislation should be brought out to treat performing arts universities as separate from academic ones. Employment criteria with regard to qualification and age will be a great concern and teaching methods will suffer if academic qualification is the criterion rather than the actual practical experiences of individual artistes.
V.P. Dhananjayan,
Yogaville, Virginia, U.S.
After Vallathol, almost all administrators were nominated purely on political basis and are responsible for its present sad state. Introduction of the high school system and reduced time for arts training has caused much damage. The Kalamandalam must be made a centre of excellence in preserving traditional arts training and performance and not a centre for academicians and mediocre performers. It seems none of Kerala’s art impressarios and intellectuals is concerned about this.
K.M. Narayanan,
Thiruvananthapuram
I was a student of Kathakali (1975-81), and later successfully produced The Iliad in Kathakali in association with the Kalamandalam in 1988-91. It’s interesting this debate occurs at last. The idea of two programmes (one for r
esearch and one for training) is a good one. Because Research and Preservation bear two different sets of expectations. And there is no reasonable ground for opposing their co-existence at Kalamandalam; it’s only a matter of artistic vision and proper management. I am not sure one should stick to Vallathol, though, and whether he would favour research or not. What would he think if he lived in present day world? It’s like asking whether Jefferson would agree to same sex marriage in the context he wrote the U.S. Constitution centuries ago.
Richard Tremblay,
Montreal
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