ERODE: No one can watch kattaikal attam without awe as the traditional Tamil folk dance form requires great balancing skills on the part of the performers since they dance with their feet tied to two-foot-tall wooden stilts.Then, what about watching someone climbing 1,320 steps with feet tied to such wooden stilts? A viewer may be breathless, but not these children.In Erode district, a group of boys and girls are showcasing their balancing skills by climbing 1,320 steps leading to the Chennimalai Murugan Temple with their feet tied to wooden stilts.K Shankar of Ganapathipalayam, who has four decades of experience as a kattaikal attam performer, is training children aged above four years to climb the 1,320 temple steps standing on the wooden stilts. With the help of the Uzhavan Kalaikuzhu organisation, he is training them to ascend and descend the steps. The ultimate goal is to help the children set a record one day. The group is also planning to climb hills in a nearby forest in the fashion.

“Climbing hills or steps like this will improve children’s ability to balance better while dancing on flat surfaces,” Shankar said.Apart from kattaikal attam, Shankar is teaching the children other art forms like valli kummi dance, salangai attam and perunjalangai attam.