Dance gigs with folk drums this weekend

A dance production featuring musicians from Tamil Nadu will showcase the energy of the parai, one of the oldest percussion instruments in India, and also challenge its caste associations. 

The audience is free to join the jig. “It’s a celebration of music and communities,” says movement arts practitioner Dayanand Akilesh who has directed ‘Taala Tamate’.

The parai also goes by the name of tamate, tapate and halage in Kannada. It is made from animal hide and wood. It is played with two thin sticks and was originally beaten to call people to gather (parai means ‘to tell’ in Tamil). “It later came to be associated with funerals and Dalits,” says Dayanand.

In recent years, the instrument has become popular at political rallies and protests as a symbol of social justice. Tamil rap song ‘Enjoy enjaami’ opens to the beat of the parai and Pa Ranjit’s Tamil films feature them.

Dayanand recalls his connection to parai: “Growing up, funeral processions were common in my locality. It was close to a graveyard. My friends and I would run out to dance on the street. Our mothers were never happy about it. Later, I learnt why parai was considered ‘inauspicious’. But can an instrument be inauspicious?”

Even in ‘Taale Tamate’, funerals are the central premise, complete with funeral songs and pots. It started as a student project for Dayanand in 2016-17. Subsequently, Adavi Arts Collective brought on board parai musicians from Madurai and Hosur, and the Aravani Art Project, based in Bengaluru, brought in transgender artistes.

“‘Taala Tamate’ is mostly physical theatre. We haven’t choreographed much. The dancers will improvise to the drum beats,” says Dayanand, who runs Beru Space in the city.

The musicians will also sing an anthem they have written in Tamil, describing how they are thrown out of the bus and the discrimination they face. “We will give printouts of its English transliteration to the audience,” he says. 

On September 16, 6.30 pm, at Bangalore Creative Circus, Yeshwantpur and September 17, 7 pm, at Shoonya, Lal Bagh Main Road. Tickets online.