Resplendent extravaganza in Melbourne
Padma Kumar EDIRIWEERA
Thanks to the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in Australia Admiral
Thisara Samarasinghe and the Honorary consul for Sri Lanka in Victoria
Mr Bandu Dissanayake for their good grace and initiative in arranging
for the visiting Sri Lanka Tri-Services Cultural Dance Troupe to stage a
traditional dance presentation in Melbourne as part of their Australian
Tour.
It was February 17, at Box hill Town Hall. Indeed, it proved itself
to be a Rhythmic Extravaganza. It was Resplendent. It had distinct
overtones of mystique and majesty of ‘Aashcharya’.
It was perhaps the first time that expatriate Sri Lankan community in
Melbourne was offered such a rare and unique opportunity to experience,
at the same time and on the same stage, the age old Sri Lankan dance
traditions mixed with contemporary song and folk drama.
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Lalani Satharasinghe's latest book
‘Sukavihari’ was launched at a special ceremony recently.
Here Satharasinghe presents the first copy of the book to
renowned dramatist Bandula Vithanage. |
Sri Lankan traditional dance forms had their origins in the beginning
of time and in the beginning of our rich and illustrious cultural
heritage. There are three major dance traditions in Sri Lanka: Kandyan,
Low Country and Sabaragamuwa, each presenting itself with its own
individualistic forms, rhythmic character and identity. They maintain
their own variety of drums. And they all had distinct ritualistic
origins.
Cultural presentation commenced with the Ceremonial Drums (Magul
Bera) invoking the blessing of the Triple Gem and the Gods followed by
Puja Netuma paying homage to Mother Saraswathi – Guardian Goddess of
Arts and Letters. They set the tone for more dramatic things to come:
mask dance featuring Naaga-Gurulu Raaksha and Pandam Paaliya, Pantheru,
Savarang, Dance of Giridevi and Gajagaa Wannama. Moving into more
vigorous presentations, audience was kept spellbound with the thrilling
display of Wadigapatuna, drawn from the ritual of Suuniyam Maduwa. Then
the Ves Dance which has its origins in Kohomba Kankariya followed by
Thelme, stage adaptation of Low country ritual Devol Maduwa.
There were also segments of lighter entertainment provided by Tea
Dance, Kohomba Kale and Kaavadi and Sinhala and Tamil songs.
Pancha Tuurya Waadana marked a fitting finale to an evening of an
outstanding rhythmic extravaganza charged with physical theatre and
pulsating thunder of symphony of drums. Finally our grateful
appreciation to the members of Sri Lanka Tri-Services and Civil Defence
Corps for their magnificent cultural presentation in Melbourne. Away
from the barracks, they played a yet another precious patriotic role as
our cultural ambassadors.
Now the time to say thank you to our production team : Prabhathi
Milton for a job well done as compere; Upa Upadasa for lighting and
sound management; Mihirie Dissanayake for organising refreshments and
Sirimavo Ediriweera for co-ordinating and presenting this dramatic
extravaganza, may we say, to a military precision.
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