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by Ranga Chandrarathne

It was just a little girl's childhood dream, kindled by the strange sight of a ballet dancer within the framework of a picture. A picture that inspired and left an enduring impression on that girl until she really became what she had always dreamt about. "I thought that I too would become a ballet dancer," says Neloufer Peiris in a voice full of the memories of an adventurous life led in England, France and Germany.

Neloufer's parents decided to visit India soon after they got married, while most of their relations opted to visit Europe. Neloufer spent her early childhood in India against the backdrop of the Second World War and the Independence struggle of India.

She started to learn dancing in India. "My mother was extremely professional and she was very critical about my performance. She realised early that I should practise very hard in order to be successful. My father found me practising by myself in between my lessons." says Neloufer referring to her mother's influence on her career.

It was not only the picture of the ballet dancer that hung on the wall that inspired me to pursue a career in dancing, but also the beautiful film "The Red Shoes" which fortified my belief in it. I remember my childhood being spent in a house filled with books on almost every subject.

My parents were both artistic and great lovers of books, and I too, was a voracious reader. I especially loved the classics. When we were in India, famous Indian dancers like Ram Gopal, Mirinalini Sarbhai and Shantha Rao visited our home and I remember them as fascinating personalities.

I could not tell exactly when I started professional lessons, but it happened when we moved to Ooti from Bangalore. We were told of a teacher of dancing, but I was refused admission as the class was confined to English students only. But this situation was changed after India became independent, and the teacher who refused me, Mrs. Symons taught me ballet. A relation who encouraged me to pursue a career in dancing was my uncle Harry Pieris.

I was not good at other subjects like Mathematics; I was not very interested, and failed sometimes, but my mother told me failure is something that you have to accept in life. I am very grateful to her and this year in June, I will do a performance to mark the 10th death anniversary of my mother and to showcase the talents of my students who are 18 + and are very beautiful in performance and serious about it.

I want to show that dancing is scientific and my students, who are to go abroad for further studies, will have to do research and learn all kinds of subjects from anatomy to philosophy. My mother was very beautiful and a lovely woman, and she was highly cultured and intelligent. She hadn't been educated: she educated herself in England.

She used to go to concerts and ballet performances in London, and I too saw every possible performance, from Chinese to Japanese Kabuki and No theatre, and I even saw Ravi Shankar live in London. My father loved drama and he acted in plays as a boy. My mother said that I ought to see all conceivable performances and dramas including those of Shakespeare.

While she spoke she became very emotional when she remembered how she used to receive only "Flowers" from boys. After she studied, Neloufer went on to teach ballet in Germany, where she also performed with internationally renowned ballet companies.

She performed as the only Asian member of theatre companies such as Lubeck, Wuppertal and Dusseldorf (these are state supported theatre companies) and in Stutgart. She also began to teach ballet in a career which lasted eleven long years and took her to many cities including the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv.

I led a very "colourful" life in Paris- living in the gangland area of Clichy! - and worked with many nationalities, including North Americans and South Americans.

There were colourful personalities from such diverse countries as Poland. When we worked together, we naturally became very close and I remember asking this boy, an American called Russell who came from a potato farm, in Idaho which is the "potatoes state of America", how he became a dancer.

He had seen Fred Astaire on television where Fred Astaire got on to a chair, so Russell too tried dancing on a chair and broke all the chairs on the farm, and that is how he became a dancer. Russell's parents said "If we want to keep our furniture safe, we should send Russell to a dance company".

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.