Perseverance Ballet presented by Sri Lanka Army’s Battle Injured War Heroes:

Incredible!

by Mahes perera

Why I wondered did the capacity packed audience not stand and give the Sri Lanka Army’s Battle Injured War Heroes’ presentation of the Perseverance Ballet, a standing ovation which they richly deserved? The audience sat and clapped in a manner which reflected disinterest! Surely!

‘Perseverance’ was a Ballet Act staged by the Battle Injured War Heroes and Team Gajithra, which was held at the Nelum Pokuna on March 18. The story line is woven round the soldier whose happiness is destroyed when he is caught in the midst of torturous firing and shellings.

He is also injured. Darkness envelopes him. He is alone. He seeks refuge in the Wellness Resort Abimansala for rehabilitation and the ballet takes off from there. It is a milestone for him and the other injured soldiers, taking them away from the feeling of dejection. Their liking for basketball is life changing and their festering sense of solitude sinks and instead new glimpes of Expectations, Ambitions, Hopes and a true meaning of life comes into focus.

The opening sequences to the battle - soldiers, gunfire and shelling – are dramatically achieved on stage with only one surviving injured soldier left who is lifted off from the ground by a rescue soldier and helicopter. The lighting, stage and sound management during these sequences is stupefying.

The images could haunt you for months to come. Immediately after in contrast, the mood is quiet and hushed as girls in ethereal white dance, searching for their dead relatives. While this mood moves into the dark, along come the soldiers celebrating, carrying banners and national flags, joined by girls and boys, public, Kandyan dancers signifying the happiness of having won the won.

But the injured go in for rehabilitation and a life on wheel chairs and crutches. The Ballet Perseverance made the audience acknowledge the powerful legacy of disability. All the participants and there were without exaggeration more than 150, were forced to rethink the usual codes of theatrical dance. The performance was amazing, incredible and once again stupefying. The grace of a wheel chair’s gliding, demonstrated the extraordinary mobility of the Battle Injured and proved to the audience that they have accomplished the impossible.

Kudos to you Battle Injured War Heroes!