Dances, Faces!

Subashini Pathmanathan

Facial makeup is an important factor in all categories of performing dance forms. The role of facial make up plays an important role not only in the dance forms but also in cinema, tele drama, stage drama as well as in the dance dramas.

Any dance form whether it is a classical dance or a folk dance or a ritual dance or a creative dance form or even an imaginative fusion dance form the facial make up is an important factor for dance. Even each classical dance form has its own selective and unique style of facial make up. Whatever it is without the aid of a makeup artist it is quite hard for an individual artiste to put the facial makeup by themselves. Applying facial make up for any traditional classical dance is not an easy task, as compared to other type of dance forms. The traditional classical dance forms have their own defined, unique, and selective make up. For instance most of the Indian Classical dance forms have different types of facial make up. Bharatha Natyam, Kuchupidi, Mohini Attam, and Odissi have almost similar type of facial makeup.

Kathakali's facial make up is entirely different, from other Indian classical dance forms, Similarly the North Indian Classical dance form Kathak's facial make up, is quite different as compared to the other Indian dances. Kathak dance form adopts light make up, rather than other South Indian dance forms. Like North Indian Kathak and the East Indian dance form Manipuri dance also adopt light make up.

The entire Indian Classical dance forms belong to the category of oriental dance forms. In the oriental dance forms, the skin colour of the individuals differs from one another. Some are fair; some are very fair and some are of whitish fair complexion. Some are of yellowish fair complexion. some are of dark brown complexion, and some are of light brown colour complexion. Hence according to the skin colour of the individual the basic foundation is selected and applied. Once the basic foundation is applied; different combination of colours are selected and mixed up together and apply to brighten the skin colour further, for the need and necessity of the artiste.

Meanwhile the shape structure of the individual face also differs from one another. Square shape face, round shape face, long faces, and oval shape faces are the common face structures of the individuals. Even the shape of the mouth, the nose, the eyes, and the eye brows also differ from one another. Shaping the eye and eye brows by the black colour Kajal and by the black eye brow pencil are an exceptional talent. If the artiste has a very small eye it is really very hard to put the eye makeup. For them, shaping the eye and making the eyes bigger is an important task for the makeup artist. Big eyes are very much needed to express the emotional expressions in dance. In Indian classical Indian dances, the eye shadows are not at all used or not at all desirable to use. Similarly pasting the eyelashes, for the Indian classical dances are not necessary or not suitable. Such make up should not be used for the classical Bharatha Natyam recitals. The eye makeup is a very important makeup for any type of dance forms. Each one's eye shape differs from another. While shaping the eyes with the eye makeup, the eye shape of the artiste and face shape of the artiste are generally taken into account. Similarly selecting and the lip stick colour is a unique and important factor for dance. At present some of the makeup artists use the lip pencil to shape the lips.They use the lip pencils to outline the lips. Out lining the lips by the lip outline pencil for a classical dance recital is not at all needed or desired, because many of times the pencil out line is visibly seen. Therefore it looks ugly. Always bright red colour lip stick is selected for the Indian classical dances to brighten the face.

Earlier for the classical Bharatha Natyam recitals the reddish blush and pink colour rouge were applied for cheeks. Such make up factors are avoided at present , because sometimes it gives a swollen outlook to artiste's face. That's why at the present era, the makeup artists avoid as much as possible to use the rouge or blush for Bharatha Natyam.

Similarly the nose shape also differs from one another, some have sharp nose, some have blunt nose, and some have long nose. Whatever it is the nose ornaments, such as Pillaku, Nathu, and Nose Studs cover-up the nose shape. Hence it could be said that the nose shape is very often covered by three different nose ornaments.

Selecting Pottu for the face also depends on the shape of the individual face as well as the wish of the individual artiste. Some dancers like to have round shape Pottu and some dancers like to have long shape Pottu. Facial make up for the small children are very difficult as compared to elder ones.

Meanwhile the eyebrow shape also differs from one another. Not only the eye brows differ from one another, but at present the youngsters, shape their eye brows as they wish. Sometimes it suits to their face sometimes it won't. Whatever it is the makeup artistes try to shape the eye brows according to the facial features of the individual artiste. Hence the facial makeup for the individuals in the classical Bharatha Natyam is a unique and excellent artistic skill. It is really regrettable that the service rendered by the makeup artists are really very valuable for the dance field but unfortunately their service is not at all much recognized by the society.