Japan is miles away from Kerala. But, for Japanese artiste Keiko Okano, the State lies close to her heart. And it was this proximity that prompted her to learn Kerala’s own dance form, Mohiniyattam.
“I’d started learning Western ballet when I was a child, but then I discovered Mohiniyattam,” says Keiko, who performed at Natanakairali, Irinjalakuda, after receiving training from Guru Nirmala Paniker for nine years.
“Western classical ballet and classical music are very popular in Japan, so my parents sent me to ballet and piano classes,” she recalls. They also took her to museums and galleries.
After her studies and spending a couple of years in the United States, Keiko returned to Japan, settling down in Tokyo with a regular office job.
“It was in Tokyo that I happened to see a flyer of a cultural school, close to where I was staying.” The school was run by Hiromi Maruhashi, a disciple of Mohiniyattam exponent Kalamandalam Leelamma and Koodiyattam-Nangiarkoothu performer Margi Sathi. Thus started Keiko’s foray into the world of Mohiniyattam. “I realised that Mohiniyattam somehow suited my physique better than Western ballet,” she says.
She started taking lessons from Hiromi on weekends. Later, Hiromi took Keiko and two other disciples on a performance tour to Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai. They also visited Kerala Kalamandalam. “It was then that I first came across the mudras of Koodiyattam,” Keiko says.
In 2005, she watched a Koodiyattam performance based on Kalidasa’s Sakunthalam, choreographed by G Venu for Natanakairali. “The Natanakairali troupe used to visit Japan almost every year and I always watched their Koodiyattam performances,” she adds.
Alongside, interactions used to happen between Japanese and Malayali artistes. For instance, Min Tanaka, a Butoh master, used to conduct performances in Kerala, while Koodiyattam and Mohiniyattam performer Kapila Venu participated in a Butoh workshop in his farm studio. When Natanakairali had conducted a Mohiniyattam workshop in Min Tanaka’s space, Keiko attended it. She also participated in the Mohiniyattam workshop conducted by Nirmala Paniker at the Tokyo residence of Tomoe Irino, a Koodiyattam performer from Japan who had taken training at Irinjalakuda.
Keiko’s first visit to Natanakaisaki was in 2008 to attend ‘Rangaparichaya’, a festival of Mohiniyattam by disciples of Nirmala, and she decided to stay on.
In 2010, she left her job and started spending almost six months a year in Kerala.
“I’ve been to the West and to the US, but I was more comfortable coming to Kerala. I felt some connection.” She was also attracted to the training methodology of Nirmala.
Keiko performed recently as part of Natanakaisiki’s Mohiniyattam Rangaparichayam Festival.