THRISSUR: As the kalolsavam venues hosting the tribal dance competitions reverberated to the beat and music of traditional instruments, the chorus of opinion was unmistakable: these art forms will stand the test of time. And when participating teams chimed in to that effect, it was music to many ears.
There were only a handful of teams when tribal dance forms were first introduced in the previous edition. “But this time, all five performance arts -- mangalamkali of the Mavilan and Malavettuvan communities of Kasaragod, paniya nritham of Wayanad’s Paniya community, Idukki Malapulaya community’s malapulayattam, irula nrutham of Irula community of Attapadi, and paliya nritham of Idukki’s Paliya community -- attracted participation from a large number of teams from all districts,” said Rangaswamy V K, a lower primary teacher of GTHS Sholayur, in Attappadi.
According to him, the dance forms have also been taken up by several schools with no tribal connection. “This is the need of the hour. The new generation of tribal people has fallen prey to the lure of mobile phones. They don’t have time to engage in the leisure activities of their fathers and forefathers,” he added.
However, Rangaswamy, a member of the Irula tribe, pointed out that though there is a threat of the art forms losing their purity, due to the intermingling of other performance arts, it’s better than having nothing at all. “Nearly all the tribal dance forms are associated with life and death. Farming is also a recurring theme,” he added.
The limited repertoire of songs used in the competitions also raised some questions. Just around 12 songs were heard throughout the arts festival, said Santhosh, another teacher of the school.
“Do you know that there are more than 250 songs sung by the Irula tribe?” said Dinesh Kumar, a student of GMRS, Kulathurpuzha, Sholayur, and a member of the Irula comamunity.
Call for guidelines
Meanwhile, the competitions seem to have thrown up the need for general rules and guidelines.
“Though the dance forms extend into the night when they are performed by tribal communities in their ooru, the same can’t be enforced in competition settings. The environment, too, is
different, and the children get exhausted easily. Hence, the education department needs to sit with the Kerala Institute for Research Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS) to formulate the rules,” said Sreejith.
With rising popularity has come the increased demand for authentic trainers from tribal communities.
“A lot of schools approached for trainers from the tribal communities. For the past two years, we were able to facilitate a lot of employment opportunities in this manner,” said Dr Indu Menon, lecturer, KIRTADS.