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by Umangi de Mel

Chrishanthi Nagendra, the first Sri Lankan to become an examiner at the Royal Academy of Dance, talks about her journey as a dance teacher.

Having learnt her first lessons in music with Timmi Engleton at the age of five in Sri Lanka, Chrishanthi was sent to London in 1969 to do her higher studies in dance at the age of 17. "I was trained at the London College of Dance and Drama, for four years and I had to do performer and teachers' examinations for the Royal Academy and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance."

Having completed the exams, she got herself a job in Sydney, Australia as a ballet teacher, "I taught full time ballet in school. But after some time in 1979, I came back to Sri Lanka and opened up the ballet centre where we had two productions called "The Nutcracker" and "Coppelia" for charity. We also had Royal Academy of Dance examinations, but unfortunately in 1985, we had to return to Sydney because of the riots."

Chrishanthi, a lively young soul at heart, says she had her son which hindered her progress in her career for a while. But not even then, would she stop to breathe, as she did a few freelance teaching. Having attended many a dance courses, Chrishanthi got more interested in teaching, as her kids grew older.

"I did more and more teaching and in 2003, I was appointed as an examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance and I've been privileged to be an examiner in Australia and Canada where I met a few of my past students, which was so nice.

I went to Hong Kong in 2005 and I'm scheduled to go to Italy in 2006, but I haven't been able to come to Sri Lanka since we don't get a choice of where we must go." Chrishanthi says, as she gets nostalgic all over again.

Talking about her early days as a student in London, she says she couldn't join the teachers' training courses at the London College of Dance and Drama as she was only 17. According to her, students could only join at 18, "I was only 17 when I went to London which is why I spent one year at the Arts Educational Trust.

Then I joined the London College of Dance and Drama to start my diploma."

There she learnt all forms of dance, as the students were compelled to. But later she did what she was more interested in doing, "I started doing classical ballet and I enjoyed it more than ever."

Running back to where she started, Chrishanthi says, she didn't want to be a dancer, going places and living off a suitecase. Her dream was to become something more than that... "I wanted to become a dance teacher.

Actually to be a performer you need a lot of dedication and hard work, and a good training. And you need to train from the very beginning whereas I left to London at the age of 17. However we had to do the performer's examination as well."

Having started her career as a dance teacher in 1973, Chrishanthi has completed 32 years of teaching, "Teaching has been most rewarding... I've had so many students and ladies who came up to me and said that they've learnt so much from me. A teacher's job is a very noble profession.

And I think it's been really rewarding for me to see my tiny students as mature adults now." Still very much into teaching, Chrishanthi says that it helps as an examiner to see how hard it is to prepare students for examinations. So I know both sides of the coin, as a teacher and an examiner." It's a challenge to teach, she says.

"Ballet gives the students lots of discipline, confidence, self possession and department that will help them as human beings."

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