Cross-cultural collaboration surprises even local audiences
When Australian theatre director Ben Knapton’s Warriors premiered at Mumbai’s Royal Opera House, many Indian viewers didn’t expect to discover something new about their own ancient traditions.
Warriors weaves together two age-old Indian movement practices – Kalaripayattu, a martial art, and Mallakhamb, a pole-based discipline – and reimagines them in a contemporary theatrical frame.
“For some of the Indian audiences, they’re meeting these practices and these forms for the first time as well, let alone in a theatrical context,” said Knapton. “It was fascinating to have so much of the audience stick around afterwards, wanting to ask questions, investigate what are these forms.”
Warriors, a production supported by the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR) and featuring five Mallakhamb artists and four Kalari practitioners, is the first time these two practices have shared the stage in a full-length production.
Storytelling beyond words
Knapton describes this form of storytelling as transcending language and cultural barriers.
“I’ve always been interested, particularly in my work in India with Mallakhamb and Kalari, in the expressive power of the body and these art forms that don’t use words but use other ways to communicate,” he said.
“Kalari can look violent sometimes, Mallakhamb can look hard and gritty, but then there is this beauty and this grace and this connection between these performers that has a feminine quality and a generosity to it,” Knapton explained. “So these binaries are breaking down and you’re seeing things in a new way.”
Knapton, who works as Associate Artistic Director of the Brisbane-based contemporary circus company Circa, first encountered Mallakhamb in 2015 during a research trip to India as part of Asia TOPA. That encounter led to Mallakhamb Mumbai, a short performance that debuted during the 2018 Commonwealth Games arts festival and went on to tour four countries. It also marked the beginning of his relationship with India.
From idea to global stage
Since 2015, Knapton has made many trips back to India, deepening his connections with local artists and institutions. That includes travelling to a school called CVN Kalari where he learned about Kalaripayattu and its incredible history.
The idea for Warriors was born – and with support from CAIR, he was able to turn it into a reality.
“What that’s going to do now is leverage the future. So there were lots of presenters that saw the work. There’s a lot of demand for the work internationally now. So there is no doubt Warriors will now have a long future," Knapton said.
What began as a creative experiment is now a movement. Warriors is expected to tour globally and has sparked interest from major institutions in India and around the world. The team behind Warriors will also create a new work in the coming years that fuses orchestral music with Mallakhamb and Kalari.
“Cross-cultural collaborations like this,” Knapton said, “They build empathy, they build understanding, they build knowledge … It’s about learning from people that live and think and practise in different ways to myself.”
