Dance and Music

Mohanam's activities reflect the richness, diversity and legend of Tamil culture along with other contemporary cultures constantly evolving and offering new possibilities.

The centre offers classes for youths in Bharatnatyam, Folk dance, Carnatic singing, Drawing, English, Hatha Yoga, Martial Arts, Theatre practice and Clay art. Children from the villages are being well trained in Bharatnatyam by qualified teachers.

The folk dances offered by Mohanam are Kummi,  Karagaatam and Kolaattam. Kummi is an ancient Tamil folk dance of the villages of Tamilnadu. Karagaattam is the most popular folk dance of Tamil Nadu. Traditionally, the villagers perform this folk dance in praise of the rain goddess ‘Mari Amman’.

Kolaattam, which is danced by a team of ten or twelve participants, is a dance form in which two sticks are used for producing rhythmic sounds with movement and music. Each dancer sings songs, moves and beats the two sticks. The dance performances are conducted in open space. The participants wear clothes of uniform colour , mainly dhoties tied up, anklets on the feet and coloured ribbons around their heads.

Children and youth from the villages around Auroville benifit these programmes. It is offered free for them.

Martial Arts

Silambam is a traditional stick martial art which has been in existence for over 5000 years, even before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans. Silambam is said to be the oldest in the world since the use of the stick was the first weapon used in pre-historic times. It received royal patronage from all the Tamil Kings beginning from the Sangam era.

Mohanam offers classes for the villages youths in this martial art form in an attempt to revive it and pass it on to the next generations.

Theatre

Therukoothu, the Theatre art of Tamilnadu, is usually conducted during village festivals where three or four streets meet; in open air, the place being lit by gas lights. Only men take part; the female roles also played by them. The performance consists of story-telling, dialogue-rendering, songs and dance, all performed by the artistes.

The stories are taken from Hindu epics and also from local folklore. The play starts in the late evening and gets over only during the small hours of the nights. The performance is so captivating that the audience are spell-bound unaware of the longs hours. Therukoothu is more popular in the northern districts of Tamilnadu.

Interested youths have been trained in this original Tamil theatre practice and seasonally Mohanam conducts theatre classes inviting experts in Therukoothu.

Education

In February 2004 Mohanam started a a Kindergarden project called Mohanam Crèche with a strong emphasis on a creative and child-centred approach, taking the experience of modern child psychology and new pedagogical methods. Continuing to stay in touch with the best of the traditional ways of loving care inner guidance, is what makes the difference in the Mohanam kinder garden in contrast to the government pre-school places that are available.

The aim is to give the children a firm base to be able to develop the necessary faculties for an independent and progress-oriented life. The Kindergarten-project is in its fourth year with more than 45 children and 3 teachers. The project offers the children lots of opportunities to be creative and learn in a joyful way through handicrafts, dancing, singing, painting, clay works and sports.

 Women Empowerment

Empowering women economically, making them self dependent, fulfilling their needs without depending on the male breadwinners of their families is the main objective for the formation of Mohanam women's group. Known as Mohanam Malargal House, it was started on 13th February 2006 with 24 women from Sanjeevinagar and surrounding villages.

The women are trained in skills like tailoring, embroidery and fabric painting. Besides, they participate in workshops through which they learn leadership skills and self defense. Kolam, the traditional art form of Tamil culture and landscape, with their orderly and often highly symmetrical designs has been brought to the fabrics by Mohanam through a project ‘Kolam Arts’.

Today some of the village women who have been offered training in hand embroidery make beautiful Kolam patterns on fabrics which are made into bags, pouches, purses and belts. This project is now providing employment for a small group of village women and continues to grow.

Community Development

Mohanam has been involved in community welfare and development work in Sanjeevi nagar and Alankuppam villages near Auroville. Youths from the Mohanam team and the villages join hands in the developmental works like environment safety, health and hygiene.

With the help of donors, a drinking water project worth Rs.9 lakhs was inaugurated recently in Sanjeevinagar village. Mohanam conducts meetings with the who's who of the villages and participates in community development work along with the villagers.

Youth Literature

'Pattaampoochigal' (Butterflies) is a youth  magazine published from Mohanam. Published in Tamil, it encourages the children and youth to read, write and learn about arts, culture, literature and lifestyle of the Tamils. Most of the literary and art contributions for the magazine are from the children themselves. The magazine is widely read among the children of Puducherry government and private school children. It has been recognised by the Puducherry government as a best youth magazine for the local children and is now distributed to the Puducherry government libraries.