Body Language

AT THE HEART of Japan-born, Delhi-based Kalaripayattu practitioner Kitaoka Kana’s work is the notion of language. Kana has just partic­ipated in her first-ever exhibition at the India International Centre, Delhi, where a collective of artists endeavouring to find space to express their art and themselves, showcased their individual voices in a group exhibition initiated by Sukanya Ghosh, titled All Together Now.

The core of Kana’s work stems from a personal and deliberate seeking and exploration of this ancient tradition­al Indian martial art form of Kerala, Kalaripayattu—Kalari, for short—and its place and position, growth and future. “The thing is,” Kana says, “Kalari is not only a movement-based martial art form; it’s a ritual; there is a hierarchy and an intrinsic guru-sishya tradition through which this art form is transferred. As a result, even though Kalari has stepped out of Kerala, and is being practised and performed across India, it has its own set of limitations. My photographs are an outpouring of the many questions in my own head.”

What makes 39-year-old Kana’s work interesting is that in attempting to inves­tigate the shifting nature of the form— both in the way that it is practised and taught—she also offers an ode to the innate quality of what is considered to be one of the oldest martial art forms of this country. One of her art installations that was part of All Together Now, is inspired by artist Eadweard Muybridge, and is a studded series of movements that constitute the Vaytaari, featuring Kana becoming in a sense a study of a movement, of movements that are intrin­sic to the practice of Kalari, on an everyday basis. “Actually, what you see was a video I sent to my teacher, Ambareesh Gurukkal during the years of the lockdown. When I began thinking about how I could use Kalari to express through art, I decided to make it like a motion picture and broke down each movement as a photograph.”

The resultant effect is an ode to Kalaripayattu itself that is at the intersection of pace and mindfulness, demanding from the practitioner, strength, flexibility, endurance and a quality of surrender. Her other work is also a commentary on the language of the practice through the notation of movement. “You see, I don’t speak Malayalam and honestly understand very little, and my teacher speaks English at a very basic level,” says Kana, “My language to understand what my teacher is trying to communicate is the language of the body; the language of movement. So, in my interest to explore the language of practice, I began notating the verbal commands in English based on lab annotation which was developed by Rudolf Von Laban in the 1930s. These texts, words are testimony to Kalari’s impact and place in today’s context. I also shared notations of how I write down my teacher’s commands in Malayalam, in English and the Japanese translation of these commands.”

This story of translation and some of what is lost in translation also signal hope for traditional art forms that have the possibility of transference and con­tinuity without reliance on the literal language of words. The limitations of vocabulary either in the English lan­guage or Malayalam, have never come in the way of Kana’s pursuit and learning of this form that she discovered in 2013, when a friend, also a contemporary dancer, suggested it to Kana, who was looking to study a traditional instruc­tion-oriented art form.

“I went to Kovalam, where my teach­er, Ambareesh, had a small Kalari set-up and I fell in love with Kalari, literally at first sight,” Kana says. Through Ambareesh, she met her senior teachers at the VKM Kalari—Vinod Gurukkal in Thrissur—and became its student; shar­ing space, energy with other practition­ers, boys and men mostly, who studied it with unflinching intensity. “I still remember how attracted I was to Chumattadi, when I first learnt it,” Kana says, referring to a technique in the Kalar­ipayattu practice that teaches one how to attack and defend against multiple oppo­nents from all sides, “I played basketball back home in Japan and somehow this reminded me of that.”

Over time, Kana, who had by then made India her home, following a master’s in Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, kept returning to Kerala to practice and immerse herself in the world of Kalaripayattu. “It wasn’t easy,” she admits. “I had a lot of questions; I wasn’t sure I was doing the movements right; I didn’t know if I was graceful; as a practice where the body and the mind have to be in a state of alignment, I’d often feel lost if I was actually embodying that spirit in the way I performed. But my teacher, Ambareesh would always tell me to trust him and to be patient.”

She did and Kana believes that over the years, one day at a time, she absorbed this practice, “I also studied the Western classical piano in Japan and I also teach a few students here in Delhi,” Kana says, “I often think about the learning and prac­tice of piano; technically, you can learn to follow a score but it takes a while for one to be able to create a sound and that is really what sets an artist apart, right?”

Much of Kana’s learning, she says, has also been by osmosis; watching and observing the practice, perfor­mance and the persona of a Kalaripayattu prac­titioner has also been a quiet, spiritual experi­ence for her. “Back in Kerala, in my early years,” Kana says, “I’d go with my teacher and his students to competitions where these young boys would perform Kalari. I’d really be amazed at how calm and collected they always were, embodying the anchoring quality of this practice that is meant to empower a practitioner with a spirit of grounding and mindfulness. “I’m yet to get there; where I’m able to control my many emotions,” Kana says, “But everyday I’m learning and trying.”

A year ago, formally, with the consent of her teacher, Kana began taking classes at a studio located in the Asian Games Village Community Centre. Her classes comprise a smattering of adults from across age groups, interests and back­grounds, but who are collectively looking to find an oasis of calm while they grapple with the urban chaos. “When I teach here, in a room full of mirrors, a flooring so different from an authentic Kalari space, I think about how things are changing. Having said that, I’m very much a part of that change and my artis­tic explorations are both a recognition and an acknowledgement of that and my own quest to search where Kalari is headed.”

ancient martial artdanceJapanesekalaripayattuKeralaKitaoka Kana