Dance as divine humanity
Basil Mihiripanne emphasizes a dance institute to
revive the dying art:
Aravinda HETTIARACHCHI
Basil Mihiripanne is an internationally
recognized traditional artiste who has been mastering several aesthetic
practices for more than 50 years. He is a perfectionist and a great
performer in dance, music and writing
* What is the relationship between your concept of art revival and
the Art Council of Kerala?
I discovered dance as an attractive medium thanks to my guru
Premakumara Epitawala. He advised me to enter the Art Council in India
to master the practice. I found dance as a full time practice.
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Basil Mihiripanne |
The Art Council recruits people aged between 8 and 10 for at least
six years. Its system and method were unfamiliar. Later I found this as
similar to our traditional gurukula System, where the student should
live with the teacher till he completes study. This method teaches
ethics and traditional ritualistic practices such as bali thovil used
for healing and exorcism.
In 1944 the Department of Education introduced dance as a subject.
Patriotic administrators such as S L B Kapukotuwa played a major role in
it. We should analyze this in a very subtle manner.
If you introduce dance without a clear foundation, it makes the
subject cheap. This is what happened ultimately.
The school teachers of dance don’t have a clear method and neglect
standards. So the students enter the university without a proper
training and they are physically inflexible for practice.
Politicians and administrators consider only the basic needs such as
starvation and unemployment. I found some people appearing as Kandyan
dancers in special state occasions. And they sing and dance with some
acrobatic moves to please their guests.
This has become a common practice in our country. Jumping movements
are not allowed in any rituals of healing.
These special guests do not know this is an inappropriate welcome.
Kandyan dance is a universal practice. It has 12 worshiping moves.
Its quality depends on its spiritually traditional dance movements. You
cannot destroy its convention or spirituality with irrelevant acrobatics
meant for common occasions.
In China they welcome their chief guests such as Mao Zedong with a
flower dance.
* Do you think the modern local artistes are capable of reviving a
performing art of our own?
The dance has turned out to be a performing art. There are two styles
in eastern dance: dancing with mere reactionary movements to traditional
drums and the dance with emotional expression.
Pandit Bharathmuni named these two methods as Nrutha and Nruthya. The
modern dancing artistes such as Ravibandu Vidyapathy follow the second
one.
The ‘Dance of Arjuna’ of Chithrasena, ‘Dance of Vayo’ of Wasantha
Kumara, and ‘Dance of Angulimala’ of Ganganatha represented the same
method.
Today’s dance artiste should revive creative dance through the
eastern tradition. I learned and mastered the form of a refined eastern
dance tradition named Kathakali. Character portrayal is its advanced
level. Arjun, Nala Damayanthi, Rama Sita and Krishna are some of these
characters.
We should realize today that we pass a period of character portrayal
in dance. We can also enter this form through Mudra Natya (traditional
ballet) such as Jasaya Saha Lenchina, Nonchi Akka and Wakkadarala
Ambadivimaga.
They became unforgettable because they always performed the play
through a significant character. I dream to develop this style in Lankan
dance. Additionally I suppose it is better to introduce something
similar to Flower Dance to welcome the distinguish guests.
* Today it is hard to find performing artistes of an accurate method.
What happened to the predecessors of refined artistes?
The invalidation of guru kula system resulted in this shortage. So I
thought of establishing an institution with guru kula values and other
relevant national and international elements of dance.
I have verbally shared this project with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He asked me to find a proper location that belongs to the Government to
build an institute. I have already located two places in Piliyandala and
Kegalle.
* Why do you recommend the guru kula system as the best way to teach
dance?
My influence in Kerala Kala Mandala motivated me to promote this
system. We had to dance for 10 hours or more a day for at least six
years. The dancer thereafter becomes light as similar to the sun. I saw
this refined development in many dancers who went through this method.
Lankan Universities are mostly concerned about books. Standard of
refinement in art is a different thing. |
