Postgraduate students

Bindu Rajendren BSc (Hons), MDanceSt

Representing Identities through Theyyam Ritual and Performative Practices

This thesis analyses issues concerning identity and representation within the Theyyam ritual and dance tradition that is practised in Malabar – the northern part of the Indian state of Kerala. The main theme of this study pertains to understanding cultural representation of the Theyyam through its dances within religious, social, performative and political contexts and through various social strata such as caste, community, locality, national and global frameworks.

The role and importance of Theyyam as a ritualistic and cultural dance practice to create and preserve identities is the main theme of this study. Affirming and promoting the Theyyam as a traditional dance form allows its representation as an authentic product of lineages, villages, the state and the nation. Though the Theyyam performance remains essentially the same in its varied identities, it serves different purposes, and has diverse meanings and fulfils specific roles.

I argue that those who dance and use the Theyyam in its various roles influence it to take up a national identity. Theyyam consequently becomes a distinctive indicator of ritualistic and religious capabilities. This positions the Theyyam in both local and global performance setting as an ethnic dance performance that is recognizable as an instantaneous marker capable of depicting various identities. Theyyam is thus revealed as a ‘custodian and preserver’ of tradition.

I posit that self-expression remains one of the most important underlying themes of Theyyam. The castes, community, Kerala and India employ the dances performed within the Theyyam to express opinions, ideologies, philosophies and religious beliefs that contribute to Theyyam’s inherent identity. Using spectacularization within the ritualistic and performative context permits the Theyyam performers to articulate and enhance its visibility and viability. Subsequently the dance performances facilitate the castes, communities and the nation states to re-construct and re-present the main themes of Theyyam in new contexts. These contexts differ from the traditional religious and ritualistic realm thus creating opportunities for examination of these representations.

The results drawn from this analysis enables me to assert that displaying authentic images of everyday life through dancing the Theyyam allows groups to affirm and reaffirm their identity. As a dance form that inculcates a complex array of understandings, beliefs, customs, values and traditions, I believe that Theyyam provides legitimacy to the performers and to the people who shape and reshape the art form through communal participation and subsequent representation of identities.

Through my appreciation of the above I demonstrate that dancing the Theyyam permits negotiations to occur between the dichotomies of traditional performance on the one hand and contemporary, local and global art on the other. Consequently Theyyam is able to represent, depict, describe and articulate qualities that allow individuals and groups to affirm their identities through its practice.

Supervisors: Dr Alexandra Kolb and Associate Professor Will Sweetman