With the State government declaring Moda Kondamma festival a State festival and official support forthcoming the stage is virtually set for staging Moda Kondamma ballet as a part of the cultural programmes.
A folk song rendered by women for generations narrating the legend of Moda Kondamma is written in the form of the ballet by P. Sivaramakrishna of SAKTI and G. Varaha Murthy, principal of Sri Modamamba Degree College at Paderu.
Though they planned to stage the ballet during the festival from May 8 to 10, owing to paucity of time and difficulty in contacting students in the remote areas they were not hopeful of staging it, The Hindu reported earlier.
Beginning of
tribal theatre
“But with Paderu Sub-Collector Lotheti Sivasankar assuring us of support we have picked up the threads again,” Mr. Varaha Murthy said. After his assurance of support about 20 students of Gyanasagar, a vocational junior college run by Brahmakumaris at Hukumpeta, have been contacted, Mr. Murthy said. Rehearsals began Wednesday for the half-an-hour ballet in Telugu.
Pangi Dappaiah of the Addumandl troupe will render the ‘kalyanam’ songs in the climax of the ballet.
Director of Search for Tribal Action and Initiative (SAKTI) Sivaramakrishna describes the staging of the ballet at the festival as the beginning of tribal theatre in the State.
States like Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have tribal theatre. They perform at Rang Manch, organised at New Delhi by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. This year “kondadoras” from Kumarasingi in G. Madugula mandal will be invited to sing ‘Nandipadalu,’ a tribal version of the Mahabharata. Hopefully it will be staged as a full play next year, he says. Mr. Sivaramakrishna sees this as an opportunity for evolution of tribal theatre with the potential to get included in the annual Nandi drama festival of the State government.
