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| Sunday, 5 September 2004 |
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Madhavi Shilpadhipathi : Dancing queen by Lakmal Welabada She started her dancing career at the age of seven representing Sri Lanka at the Glasgow Garden Festival, an international cultural show held in Scotland. Today, all grown up Madhavi Shilpadhipathi juggles her love for dancing with a full time career, devoting her week days to work and weekends to dancing. The only child of veteran dancers Piyasara and Kanthi Shilpadhipathi, who put Sri Lanka on the world map with their celebrated traditional dancing, she has the additional responsibility of preserving the tradition for future generations. Madhavi works as a Human Resources executive at Noyon Lanka company attached to MAS Holdings group, from Monday to Friday dedicates her weekends to dancing. She can be seen at Piyasara - Kanthi Rangayathanaya at Kalapura - Ratmalana, 'Kamkarusevana'- Ratmalana, 'Sarasavipaya'- Maradana and 'Sudarshi'- Bauddhaloka Mawatha on Saturdays and Sundays teaching the traditional dancing steps to her young students. "It's relaxing. Dancing is a stress-releasing exercise as it ultimately releases your mental strain," she says. An old girl of Musaeus College, Madhavi was an all-rounder, who was Senior Prefect in 1997 and 1998 and won first place at the All Island Sinhala Literature Poetry Contest in 1994 and 1995. Sunday Daham School had influenced a lot in building up her personality. The knowledge in Buddhism that Madhavi acquired from Daham Pasala helped her to win the 'Light of Asia' English Speech Contest organised by the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA). She also won the Junior Award of the contest in 1992 and the Intermediate Award in 1993. In addition the bilingual prodigy has taken part and won in many poetry reciting, poetry writing and debating contests held both in Sinhala and English. The first foreign trip she made at the age of seven along with her parents to Glasgow provided her with the opportunity to perform at the Commonwealth Centre in London in the presence of celebrities. The lucky little dancer brought honour to Sri Lanka and the international audience gave her a standing ovation. In 1992, Madhavi performed at the Crafts and Folk Art Museum organised by the International Festival of Masks in USA. Following that, she made several trips to the USA as her father Piyasara Shilpadhipathi is a visiting lecturer at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). In 1999 Madhavi performed a lecture - demonstration of folk songs of Sri Lanka at the UCSB. "That was something memorable in my life. We were performing 'Wessanthara Jathakaya' (King Wessanthara was one of the former births of The Buddha) in front of multi-cultural students. It was demonstrated by our dancing troupe in Sinhala, and I was explaining every mode of the dance in English. And when we were performing the role of Manthri Devi, who wept at the loss of her two children, I noticed tears pouring down the eyes of some in the audience. It was amazing. The rhythm and gestures of 'Wessanthara' had made the audience very emotional. At that time I realised that language was not a barrier for music," she reminisces. Madhavi did A/Ls in commerce and arts stream aiming to do Law for her higher studies. But she ended up getting a Degree in Business Administration. She registered herself at the University of Sunderland during her three-month stay in the USA and continued at the London Business School, Sri Lanka. She won the all Island subject prize of the course in 2000. Madhavi selected Human Resources for her post graduate studies at the Institute of Personal Management in Sri Lanka and scored 100 marks in the 4th semester for the first time in the history of the Institute. Her next aim is to do the post graduate degree in Management of Business Administration. After being immersed the subject of Human Resources Madhavi, realised it was the career line for her. 'Human Resources' became her passion and after working as a trainee Marketing Executive for a short while, Madhavi joined Noyon Lanka as an HR executive. "Our company manufactures lace. This is the first time in Sri Lankan history that lace is being manufactured locally. We work as a joint venture with a French company. Hence I'm studying French at the moment," she says. "Human Resources Management is an art. Many other jobs deals with machines. But this job deals with people. We can't handle people only by talking to them. Recruiting, training and retaining are the key trio in Human Resource Management. You should be able to recruit the correct person to the particular job and train him to develop his skills until he comes to a suitable standard. More than the first two, retaining or keeping an employee with you is the most important and challengeable task. We can't just ask him to 'stay with us', but must look into his needs and satisfy him. Different people get motivated from different areas. One would be satisfied with a high salary. Another person would prefer to get recognition, decision making power and authority. Understanding one's need is an art. Hence you have to be a sensitive person," she says. Madhavi travels to her office at the Biyagama Export processing zone, from her residence at Kalapura, Ratmalana. She spends her whole day sinking into her work, but never forget to ring her husband Harsha Wanigasooriya (who works in the Sathosa Management) at least once a day to refresh her mind. Though she has passed many milestones in life this small-framed, slim, smart, versatile woman is still in her mid twenties. Releasing a CD and a cassette 'Gee Ranga Rekha' of nursery songs at a colourful launching ceremony held at the Sir John de Silva Memorial theatre last week was the newest experience for her. "The songs in 'Gee Ranga Rekha' are sung to folk music and drum beats which can be easily used for traditional folk dancing steps," she says. "I haven't learnt music or singing under a professional teacher. It was my mother from whom I got the inspiration. She is a traditional dancer as well as a folk singer," she explains. Madhavi grew up with the drum beats of the traditional dancing and considers dancing her heritage. Dancing, listening to any kind of music, watching cricket and rugger matches either on TV or being present at a sports ground, cooking a meal for her husband and her parents during the weekend are among her pastimes. "My mother is the role model in my life. If I compare my mother to the moon, my father is the sun that brightens my life. And my husband is the only star that shines in the sky in my world," say the career minded dancer - with a broad smile. |
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