Researcher brings lessons of Indian martial art to NZ youth
The links between an ancient Indian martial art and young Aucklanders learning dance may not immediately seem obvious, but for Mark James Hamilton the connections are clear. He believes there is a lot our young people can learn by incorporating elements of the martial art kalaripayattu into their dance training.
Hamilton spent five months of this year in Thiruvananthpuram, Kerala learning more about the unarmed drills and weaponry training practised as part of kalaripayattu – the modern form of a martial art that South Indian Nayar warriors once used to defend their masters’ kingdoms.
The trip to Kerala was the latest in a series of exchanges in which Asia New Zealand Foundation grants aided movement artists from New Zealand and Kerala to travel between the countries to collaborate and share their skills and cultures.
Hamilton says the knowledge gained through this latest project will be used to help develop the Mika Haka Foundation’s Physical Activity Dance Programmes. “This seems the most effective way to maximise on the number of young New Zealanders who may benefit from this unique art form. In particular, the dynamic appeal and coherent biomechanics of kalaripayattu will be used to further invigorate and stabilise the dance training offered by the foundation.”
Hamilton’s focus for this latest trip was to understand how the use of weapons, and the risks involved in such training, brings a level of precision to martial artists’ performances that can be applied to dance. “Clearly, dancers don’t need to become fighters, but an excellent performer needs a quality of assurance and commitment that is seen so clearly in the martial artists who have mastered their weapons.
“The postures and movements of kalaripayattu definitely have a value in making a performer flexible, strong and elegant, but more on a more subtle level, the training also instils an exactness and presence in the practitioner.
“It is this quality, above all, that I would like to bring to the training of young performers – to enrich their art, and their ability to engage in all kinds of tasks, and all kind of areas of life.”
The Mika Haka Foundation, is currently working on the Aroha Mardi Gras project for the Rugby World Cup. Hamilton says that once this project is finished, it will be time to review how the foundation’s training should be adapted and expanded.
“It is here that my knowledge, garnered in Kerala, will come into play. The secret of the foundation’s progress has been to integrate cultural knowledge from all over the world into the Māori-led and Māori-centred work that Mika always leads. The kalaripayattu is a great addition to his process, as its relationship to modern day Kerala’s performing arts is comparable to that between hereditary Māori martial practices and today’s performance of kapa haka.
“By looking at how elaborate and highly theatrical dance forms like kathakali grow from kalaripayattu, new insights are brought forward about how haka and tu taua (Māori weapons training) might give seed to new kinds of dance theatre.”
Hamilton also believes that incorporating elements of kalaripayattu into Mika Haka’s programmes will also help foster healthy lifestyles in the young people who take part.
“Kalaripayattu is so demanding on a practitioner’s mind and body that progress requires a resolution to forego anything that might get in the way of feeling 100% every time training begins. So, the martial art demands a commitment to healthy living.
“But beyond that, it is practice with a weight of tradition underpinning its every detail. It informs the practitioner on many levels, and ultimately brings about an awareness of how the whole of our being is one single unit. It teaches each participant to see how all aspects of our lives affect one another, and invites a greater awareness of how, over time, little choices add up to big results.”
Images:
1. CVN Kalari instructors, Rajashekaran Nair & Gurukkal Sathyanarayanan Nair
2. CVN Kalari senior student Raam Kumar (Images 1 and 2 courtesty of CVN Kalari Sangham Trivandrum)
3. Dr Mark James Hamilton during training (Images courtesy of Vidhwan Unnath)