India, Sri Lanka dance collaboration

The India-Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF) will stage Samhara, a collaboration between the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, India and Sri Lanka's Chitrasena Dance Company, in Colombo today, tomorrow and May 13.

Samhara explores the meeting point between the sensuousness of Nrityagram's Odissi and the masculine dynamism of Chitrasena's Kandyan dance.

Samhara has already been staged in India and the USA.

The staging of Samhara in Sri Lanka is the result of discussions between the Chitrasena Dance Company and the India-Sri Lanka Foundation and approval of the proposal for partial assistance for this by the ISLF.

All dance forms in India are based on the Natya Shastra, an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts that encompasses theatre, dance and music written between 200 BCE and 200 CE. However, regional cultural influences have created dance traditions that are unique and distinct, reflecting the cultural ethos of their region.

Samhara brings together two dance traditions - Odissi from India and Kandyan from Sri Lanka, both of which began in temple courtyards as ritual performances. Working from the idea of the Natya Shastra as the root of all dance traditions in the region, Samhara explores the possibility of a new vocabulary of dance using the performance practices of India and Sri Lanka.

It is dedicated to celebrate Guru Vajira's 80th birthday, and will attempt, through dance, to highlight the shared historical and cultural contacts between India and Sri Lanka, and create a new language of expression.

The ISLF recently supported the staging of classical Sanskrit drama Mrichchakatikam in Tamil by Janakaraliya Theatre Arts Institute and the Swami Vipulanantha Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University of Batticaloa. ISLF also supported the educational visit of a 20-member group from various schools in the Northern Province.