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Panchari Melam is a percussion ensemble, canonically lasting more than four hours, performed during temple festivals in Kerala, India. Panchari Melam (or, simply, panchari), is one of the major forms of chenda melam (ethnic drum ensemble), and is the best-known and most popular kshetram vadyam (temple percussion) genre. Panchari melam, comprising instruments like chenda, ilathalam, kombu and kuzhal, is performed during virtually every temple festival in central Kerala, where it is arguably presented in the most classical manner. Panchari, however, is also traditionally performed, with a touch of subtle regional difference, in north (Malabar) and south-central Kerala (Kochi). Of late, its charm has led to its performance even in deep-south Kerala temples. Panchari is a six-beat thaalam (taal) with equivalents like Roopakam in south Indian Carnatic music and Ek taal in the northern Hindustani classical. Another chenda melam which comes close to panchari in prominence and grammatical soundness, is Pandi Melam, performed outside temple precincts in general. Other chenda melams, though less popular, are chempata, adanta, anchatanta, dhruvam, chempha, dhruvam, navam, kalpam and ekadasam. Though there are expressional differences between the panchari and the above-mentioned melams
Labels:
FESTIVAL,
KERALA,
LIFE IN INDIA,
people,
percussion,
SOUTH INDIA,
temple
One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.
-- Chinese Proverb
This photo was taken during the Chennai Sangamam, a festival highlighting the Tamilnadu culture & its unique art forms. Everyone were so engrossed looking at the stage performance & I was also busy taking photos of the action there. A sudden impulse made me turn around & look at the crowd.
This girl was so happily leaning on the tree and lost in her own world paying no attention to the happenings around her.
Compagnie 111's Plan B, created by Aurélien Bory. Bonjour-India Festival, Chennai 2009.
Plan B starts with this bit where neatly dressed men in business suits stand up on a inclined plane and slide down relentlessly for about thirty to forty times, to emphasis how life goes by as one just watches it. Later on they proceed to perform some of their innovative gravity defying bits, which were truly entertaining.
This is part of the on going Bonjour-India Festival. More info available on their webpage .
In their own words
Four acrobats sliding on a mobile plane (inclined, horizontal, vertical), a few white balls magically suspended in mid-air, a flurry of lights and music: this is Plan B for you, a show of Compagnie 111 directed by the New-Yorker Phil Soltanoff, combining the best of circus, theatre and video art. From an imaginative renewal of the experience of space and the laws of gravity, gradually emerges a poetic discourse. In Plan B, dream and farce unfold in a new poetics of space.
Artistic movements of the 20’s such as constructivism; the Bauhaus have greatly influenced the creations of Compagnie 111. Other artistic forms present on stage, namely lights, sound, live electronic music, video, dance, design, magic and shadow play, are all laced into one unique creation. Plan B is not only full of creativity, humour and poetry, but also represents a mind-boggling example of technical perfection. Their mastery of the circus arts leads the four men to defy the universal laws of space and gravity. What remains is slow motion, energy, buoyancy.
Performers:
Olivier Alenda, Aurélien Bory, Pierre Cartonnet, Loic Praud
with Sylvian Lafourcade, Stéphane Ley, Arnaud Veyrat
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