A fusion of dance
by Thushara Kulatunga
 Dancing is an art that can be an extremely powerful form of
expression and to learn it and master it would require a lot of patience
and determination among other things. Sri Lanka, like all other cultures
in the world has its own share of unique traditional dance styles. But
should we always stick to what’s traditional? I recently spoke to an
individual who while, having studied various forms of traditional dance,
is now attempting to take a step further (at least where Sri Lankan
Dance is concerned) with the concept of ‘Fusion Dance’.
Chathuri Wickramarachchi is a dancer with over fourteen years of
experience as a professional dancer both in Sri Lanka and many other
countries, having knowledge of a number of different dance styles. She
now runs The Ethnic Dance Studio, which she initiated in late 2003 which
as this interview continues you will understand has a bigger vision than
to just teach dance. What follows are snippets of my conversation with
Chathuri.
How did it all begin?
I began learning dancing at the age of seven. From a very young age,
I was drawn to the sound of our traditional drums and I’ve always felt
that rhythm in me. I’ve been dancing professionally for fourteen years.
Elaborate more on the dancing styles that you’ve learned and also
about what your own troupe does now.
I have studied Kandyan dancing, low country dancing and Sabaragamuwa
dancing. In addition to that I’ve studied various Indian dancing
methods, Kathak dance being what I’ve gone furthest in.
 What my dance troupe does is a mix of our traditional dances with
improvisation and a lot of Indian dance and other styles. We draw
inspiration from traditional styles of dance and improvise and change it
in order for it to be taken to the stage. It can be called Fusion Dance.
The first show by the Ethnic Dance Studio which will also be called
‘Ethnic’ will be to display a lot of fusion dances. The next ethnic
project will be to stage a Sri Lankan ballet.
Tell us more about the Ethnic dance Studio/troupe and its aims
If you take the audience in Sri Lanka, there’s a lot of repetition.
If you take most of the dancing shown on TV it’s more or less the same
thing. For example if you take a dance, there’s usually too much of
jewellery worn by the dancer. I feel that Dancing is a Body language,
meaning it should come from the dancer. At Ethnic, one of our objectives
is to give the dancers more prominence with less accessories and
costumes that aren’t painful for the eyes and leave it more simple so
people can really see what the dancer does as opposed to being
distracted by lots of accessories and colours.
We incorporate various styles of dance when creating our own thing
including various Indian dances and even Latin Dances. We don’t want to
be confined to just one style.
We also want to change the way the audience looks at dancing to make
it more diverse, to introduce new styles and so on. We also want to do
our share of taking Sri Lankan traditional dancing to an international
level. There have been a lot of people who have worked hard in doing
that and we hope that this generation of Sri Lankan dancers will be able
to take it further.
 Another issue I’ve noticed in Sri Lanka is that for a person to get
somewhere in the arts such as dancing or music is usually if their
mother or father is also big in their field and that restricts a lot of
talent from getting out there. We want to change this mentality. There
are a lot of talented people in Sri Lanka and we want to give them more
opportunities to be seen. Those are the primary reasons as to why the
Ethnic Dance Studio was initiated. We don’t expect all of this to happen
from our first show but that is where we are heading.
About the debut Ethnic Dance Studio show
The first show is scheduled for November 15. This concert will
showcase dancing talents of an age group of five year olds all the way
to university students. A lot of us have performed together before in
various venues both in Sri Lanka and other countries but this will the
first official show by the Ethnic Dance Studio.
What are the Ethnic Dance Studio’s aims for the coming year?
We will have a string of shows Down South from the December 24 to
January 1. We also have two overseas performances scheduled for next
year that have not yet been confirmed. And we also hope to stage a Sri
Lankan Ballet with a lot improvisation, which will be performed with a
live band playing the backing music. These are the events that we’re
getting ready for so far.
Pix: Riyazi Muzammil
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