Sri Lankan dancers in Kashmir
W.A. Tilak Fernando
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The Sri Lankan Dancers took time off to perform at a remote
school where a makeshift stage was specially assembled.
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A 26 member dance troupe from Sri Lanka returned to the island a few
days ago after a series of dance performances in the Jammu-Kashmir area
in Northern India.
The programme showcasing Sri Lanka’s folk, classical and semi
classical dances were a young group of dancers all in the 15 to 17 age
group drawn from Colombo Schools.
‘The Sri Lankan dancers shed linguistic and Cultural barriers and
presented the items which kept the Jammu audience spell bound as the
State Times of Jammu headlined their report.
The Daily Excelsior of Jammu captioned their three column report
‘Captivating performance by young artistes from Sri Lanka’.
There were more than two dozen newspaper reports on the performance
by the young Sri Lankan group. In addition three TV Channels telecast
the entire programme of 40 minutes.
On the opening day the Chief Guest was the Divisional Commissioner of
Jammu-Kashmir Sudhanshu Pandey and the guest of honour was the President
Chamber of Commerce and Industries Ram Sahay.
The visit of the Sri Lankan group was organised by the Jammu-Kashmir
Acadamy of Art and Culture (the Cultural Dept of the State).
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Some of the many newspaper articles on the Sri Lankan dancers.
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Sudhanshu Pandey in his address congratulated the academy for
organising this type of event for the first time in the State of JK, and
said programmes such as this help in building closer ties between
neighbouring countries, where strangely major domestic conflicts rage at
present.
He further said’ the young artistes from war ravaged Sri Lanka were
presenting glimpses of their rich cultural heritage in land that is not
unknown to the sound of gunfire and occasional bomb-blasts.
The programme was actually a reiteration of the need to send
steadfastly preserve and protect the Cultural heritage and the values
sought to be destroyed by some gun-toting bigots”.
The audience were appreciative of the variety of dance items
presented. They said even though the lyrics, music and costumes were
different the themes and movement of dances such as ‘Pooja dance!, Kala
gedi dance’ ‘Goyam kepima etc., were similar.
A Kashmir dance ‘Bumro Bumroo’ from the film ‘Mission Kashimir’ that
was presented during the performance brought the audience to their feet
with rhythmic clapping, at the end of the performance they were stunned
to hear that the dance was presented not by Kashmiris but by the young
damsels from Sri Lanka who were trained by the Chroegrapher of the
original dance in the film himself Randir Singh.
The Sri Lankan Troupe performed in five different districts of the
Jammu-Kashmir State during their week-long stay. The Sri Lanka dance
items were choregraed by veteran dancer Sunila Jayathi Lokumana. |
