Sri Lankan dances to be performed by Indian girls
by Lakmal WELABADA
The
fame and popularity that traditional Indian dancing be it, Bharatha
Natyam, Kathakali, Kathak, Kuchchipudi, or the contemporary Indian film
dance has gained with Sri Lankans is just tremendous. However, sometime
it’s a misfortune that we, Sri Lankans have given less priority in
popularising our own traditional dances with international audience.
Visha de Silva, veteran traditional dancing Guru in Sri Lanka who has
nearly 30 years of experience as a dance teacher has seized the
opportunity to mark the history of Lankan traditional dance by accepting
to display a ravishing Lankan dance item before an International dance
enthusiastic audience in New Delhi. Titled as the `International
Children’s Festival of Performing Art 2008’ is organised by Ryan
International Schools of India for the end of November.
The special feature of this forthcoming event is that the Lankan
dance item will be performed by Indian dancers. Visha will be training
300 Indian girls of the age of 14-16 years for the opening ceremony of
the event. This is the ninth consequent year for this grand event which
has carries the theme of `World Peace’, and also with an intention to
render a cultural exposure to the children of the world. Children’s
dance troops from 28 countries of many parts of the world including Asia
and Europe have been taking part in this.
“I have been taking part in this series of session for the past eight
years since the beginning, representing Sri Lanka,” says Visha. “All
these years, they had their own Indian dances as the opening ceremony,
and it’s a great pleasure to acquire such an opportunity to perform Sri
Lankan dances this time. I hope to add traditional Lankan dance forms
like `Lee Keli’, `Raban’ (drumming) and Harvest dancing (such as `Kulu’)
to the traditional Lankan drum beat for the opening session. Indians
love our traditional dances and we have been getting tremendous ovations
at this event throughout the past eight years. However, it will be a
challenge for me as I’m going to train the Indian girls for this
session. I hope they will pick up the steps and give an exquisite
performance of the traditional Lankan dances,” says Visha. |