‘Feel Sri Lanka’ to promote local dance

by Thulasi Muttulingam

‘Feel Sri Lanka’, a concept developed by the tourism authorities to promote and showcase local dance and culture has become a novel tourist attraction. Now in its 17th week since inception, the program showcases a different dance troupe every week on Fridays at the Hotel School Auditorium.

Tourists who attended the event came from all walks of life, backgrounds and countries but they were all unanimous in their appreciation of the program.

A Jordanian tourist who was in Sri Lanka for the first time said he loved the performance. “I had been in Malaysia also and saw some of their traditional dances which I thought beautiful but this is far superior”, he said. A young Russian tourist said that she loved the performance which she called very “beautiful and professional and performed with a technique second to none.”

An Indian tourist who arrived in Sri Lanka recently said she found the items very colourful among which she loved the drumming and devil dance most.

All the dancers were very skilled and exotic while the devil dancer was a big hit. According to General Manager, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, Vipula Wanigasekera, ‘Feel Sri Lanka’ was launched with the purpose of showing the traditional dances of Sri Lanka to tourists but there is also a lot of innovation involved in the creation of ‘fusion’ items to appeal to a particular clientele. “The profile of the audience, professions, countries represented, occasion etc compel organizers to select dance items while keeping a balance between traditional and improvised dance forms.

Co-ordination, costumes, presentations, right kind of sounds and light are all essential ingredients to make performances a success.”

This was borne out in the performance staged last Friday where all the dancers used classical hand and feet movements in their performances - except that some of the dances were certainly fusion and modern rather than ancient.

The women had a dance item with pom poms and the men performed an ‘Angam Pora’ (traditional martial art dance with long poles), like invaders from outer space and with harmonising music.

It was a fusion of tradition and modernity but to the credit of the troupe, it was achieved with aesthetic appeal and technical brilliance.

According to Wanigasekera, the program is a hit with the tourists commenting, “We have never seen anything like this, Thank You”. However a lot of co-operation from different sectors is needed to sustain and promote it.