Trance and Possession: Ritual Madness and Choreographed Alteration
Performance studies & cultural discourse in South Asia January 1, 2025
This chapter examines how trance, possession, and madness are performed and understood in classical and ritual performance traditions of Keralam, including Kathakali, Kutiyattam, Teyyam, and Guruti at Chottanikkara. In classical forms, performers achieve trance through disciplined training and cultivation of body-memory, allowing them to merge with a character while maintaining control, which distinguishes this state from possession. The analysis explores how altered states of consciousness are codified within specific cultural frameworks.