CRA’P Presentations 2024
The Centre KALARIGRAM of Auroville, India, comes back to CRA’P. With them we organise three weeks of activities based on Kalaripayattu, a millenary tradition of knowledge and practices about martial arts, health and spirituality.
Between the 9 and 28 September, with the collaboration of Mollet del Vallès City Council, we will venture into this ancestral tradition and its legacy guided by Lakshman Gurukkal one of the most renowned masters in this artform.
Saturday 28th September at 20h at the Theatre Can Gomà
A Journey of transformation through the martial art of Kalaripayattu. A performance that combines this ancient tradition with other forms of dance and theatre from India and Bali, with live music. With the participation of the master Lakshman Gurukkal coming especially from India, along with Esther Freixa and Toni Cots from CRA’P and the renowned musician Jordi Rallo, among others. A very unique event in Mollet!
TICKETS SALES
Fee: 5 €
Online: https://molletvalles.koobin.com
Cultural Centre La Marineta (Pl. De l’Església, 7, from Monday to Friday from 15.30h till 21h)
Mercat Vell: at the box-office, the same day one hour before the performance, if tickets available.
Lakshman Gurukkal is one of the few rare and revered Gurus of Kalaripayattu, Ayurveda and Tantra. Following the tradition of family lineage, he had started learning Kalaripayattu at the tender age of 5 under the tutelage of his father Guru Veerasree Sami Gurukkal. In his growing years, he also learnt from his father the art and science of Ayurveda. He has been awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, with the title of Senior Fellowship (in Kalaripayattu and Natyashastra). He has a post graduate degree in Advaita Vedanta from Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, at Deemed University under the Ministry of Human Resource Development in New Delhi. He worked as a Lecturer in Martial Arts at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala. He is the director of Hindustan Kalari Sangam, the family centre in Calicut, Kerala. In 2010 he founded Kalarigram in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, an international research centre on the applications of Kalari for empowering the younger generations with the core principles of the ancient wisdom and its tools to develop an engaged and responsible human being.
The Kalarigram centre is based in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India. It is structured as a holistic Kalari gurukulam, and was founded by Lakshman Gurukkal in 2010. It trains artists from all over the world. Kalarigram’s visit aims at imparting traditional Indian wisdom of body-mind training, performing arts and spiritual practice.
Esther Freixa i Ràfols is an actress and Performing arts maker with a degree in Drama from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona. She works as a performer with different artists and companies. At the same time, she looks for pedagogical lines that allow the transmission of knowledge about the body within the creative act by giving classes, workshops and courses. Since 2012 she travels regularly to India to learn Kalaripayattu. She is a founding member of CRA’P, creation practices and artistic research.
Toni Cots is an actor, researcher, dramaturg, professor and director of Performing Arts, with a degree in Theatre Studies at the Theatre Institute. He trains Contemporary dance in Barcelona, London and Oslo. In India learns Kalaripayattu’ (martial art); in Bali, Pentjak Silat (martial art), and Topeng, masked theatre form; and in Japan, Nihon Buyo, Japanese classical dance. Between 1975 and 1985, he is an actor and member of Odin Teatret, Denmark, and I.S.T.A. (International School of Theatrical Anthropology), under the direction of Eugenio Barba. His artistic and teaching work has been implemented or presented across many countries in the world. He is a founding member of CRA’P, creation practices and artistic research.
CRA’P is a non-profit association, which disposes of a 115 m2 workspace located in Mollet del Vallès. Its aim is to make this space a shared place to generate various artistic activities based on research and creation around the practices of contemporary performing arts and their dissemination.
Jordi Rallo studied tablas with the master Uttam-das in Rishikesh (India). Darbouka at the Traditional Music Centre Studies; and with a scholarship he furthered his knowledge at the Kalakchetra School of Fine Arts in Madras (India). Over the last 40 years he has been introducing these instruments into different genres. This experience with other musicians, poets, actors and dancers has led him to expand and build up a set of percussion instruments: Tablas – Dabouka – Tambourines – Kanjira – Uddus – Cajon – Gongs – Samplers, etc.
Photos: Houari Bouchenak