Entertainment

Living Stones - a dance extravaganza

By Mahes Perera

The fourth dance production from ‘With My Feet’ titled ‘Living Stones’ presented by Naomi Rajaratnam will be in aid of ‘Dev Siri Sevana’ an elders’ home in Welisara.

At the home, admissions and care for the elders are free of charge irrespective of race and religion. Presentations by Naomi Rajaratnam in the past years have always been stunning evenings of entertainment. ‘Living Stones’ which will go on the boards on August 23 and 24 at the Bishop’s College Auditorium is bound to take your breath away. The storyline is all about a new era after life.

The beautiful city of Gold. There are twelve gates to enter and twelve foundations, each representing a precious stone. The first foundation will be of Jasper, the second of Sapphires, the third layed with Chalcedony, the fourth of Emerald, the fifth of Saldonyx and so on.

Each dance item has its own story about the precious stones that make up the city of Gold, choreographed to different styles of music - classical, upbeat, aboriginal and contemporary - and the entire show will take the audience through various moods and styles to give an overall picture of the beauty of the city.

According to Naomi Rajaratnam, the show ‘Living Stones’ will see a total of twenty one dancers on stage in a brilliant array of costumes that will hold the audience in awe.

B & S to release 5th CD

by Mahes Perera

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After a hiatus B & S were on stage at the Observer - Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Awards night to perform their creative Sri Lankan songs and entertain the audience who lapped up their music with enthusiasm.

B & S labelled the ‘ambassadors’ of youth music were crusaders in the music industry setting off a trend hitherto unexplored, and resulting in many young aspiring musicians and singers taking a page off their book.

With the escalation of their popularity B & S spread their wings and took their music to India, UK, the States, Europe, Middle East and Australia. It’s now history.

As a matter of fact Bathiya and Santhush were in Australia during the hiatus period before they returned to perform at the awards night of the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.

Speaking to Santhush to find out the reason for their stay in Australia, he revealed that “we have started a project to spread our music in Australia in the same way we did market our music in India.

We translated our songs to Hindi and produced the CD’s. Likewise we are translating our hit songs into English to market it in Australia, in order to catch the US market which is our aim.

It’s a lot of hard work to get into the Australian market. At the moment we are studying the market how it works etc., because it is different and structured. So it will probably take us one year to put everything together.”

You were here for the Sirasa Dancing Star finals as well what are your other performance commitments in Sri Lanka?

“We do not have many performances, we are strongly into production and filming of music videos. We are recording our 5th CD which we will be releasing by November/December.

At present we are into filming a video for a single titled Shaheena which will have a new sound, a Mediterranean sound. We are planning for 2009 and are into a phase working both in Sri Lanka and Australia. To our fans we will keep on giving them good music. Our first album for the South East Asia market will carry a Sri Lankan flavour.”

We understand there is a tour in the offing could you expand on it?

“Yes we are calling it the USA Tour 2008. B & S with Ashanthi and Umara. Our first concert is in London on October 3 then we will be off to Toronto for a performance on October 5, LA on October 11, we will be in Washington on October 17, New York on 18 and by the end of October we will be back in Sri Lanka.”

Good wishes for a successful tour!

Remembering Clarence

Today is the 65th birth anniversary of the ‘Father of Sinhala Pop’ Clarence Wijewardena. Acclaimed as a leading singer and musician, music director and lyric writer he formed the Golden Chimes and many were the hits that he composed which today are evergreens for music lovers to enjoy. Lankika and Chanaka Perera of Golden Chimes are thankful that they knew him and appreciate his rare artistry.

A CD ‘20 Year Explosion’ containing a live performance of Clarence, Annesley and Indrani will be released to mark the occasion.

Cultural pageant

A mega cultural pageant organised by the Sri Lanka-Malay Association and the Colombo Malay Cricket Club will be held at the Padang Complex, Colombo 2 on August 16 and 17. The gala opening on Saturday 16 will also include sports, fun activities for children, Sri Lanka-Malay Rally and many trade stalls.

On the second day, a Malay ‘Do You Know’ contest will be held with an awards ceremony and the audience is invited to participate. Colourful dance performances, infectious music and nail-biting sports are also on the cards in this celebration of culture and tradition of the Malays in Sri Lanka.