Budding dancers

The Sixth Kala Eli Mangallya of Visha School of Dance will be held on June 25 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.

Students will be performing traditional dance forms which originated from the Kohomba Kankariya ritual whilst showcasing the creative talents of students through modern dance items. The drumming talents of the students performing at the event will also be highlighted.

Forty students of Visha School of Dance have completed their Kala Eliya in the past.

‘The Visha School of Dance’ which was founded in 1984 by Visha Manohari de Silva has been a leading Dance School in the country providing students with the opportunity of obtaining skills on Sri Lankan traditional dances as well as providing the support required by her students to go beyond the tradition by instilling creativity to their thinking.

Meanwhile as an internationally renowned institute led by an internationally recognized dance teacher provided her students with the opportunity of travelling overseas to perform and bring glory to Sri Lanka on numerous occasions during the past 15 years. Her students have performed at many dance festivals in countries such as Japan, Korea, Denmark, Thailand, Hungary, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Singapore and Maldives.

Visha School of Dance has many productions to its credit. Some of these are: Nruthyahara, Thriveni, Chalana.

Visha is not alone in carrying out her ambition of creating internationally recognized Sri Lankan dancers! Beautiful, talented and most creative Vindya is her offspring who has a Masters Degree from the University of Kelaniya after successfully completing the Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts.

Presently she works for Sri Lankan Airlines. An excellent dancing teacher herself, Vindya assists the mother in teaching as well as assisting in many of her later productions. She was also exposed to many events overseas and has become an exponent in creating dances for overseas audiences. Vindya is expected to take over the reins in time to come and continue the mother's good work in the future.

Visha Manohari de Silva, the creative specialist, choreographer, Educationist, and Event Management Expert, had commenced to pursue her illustrious career at the tender age of 12 as a student of Vishaka Vidyalaya, Colombo. Having completed her secondary education she entered University of Kelaniya and obtained a degree In Fine Arts.

Visha was fortunate to be guided by the internationally acclaimed great ‘Guru’, the late Chitrasena and his exponent spouse Vajira. She was a permanent member of ‘Chitrasena and Vajira’ dance troupe which travelled widely throughout the world when Sri Lankan cultural and folk dancing was not very highly acknowledged in other countries as of today.

Therefore, it was considered as a rare honour for Visha to be a member of the ‘Chitrasena Dance Troupe’. She has participated in most of Chitrasena's great creations such as’ Karadiya’, ‘ Nala Damayanthi’, ‘Shiva Ranga’, ‘ Kinkinikolama’, ‘Chandalika’, etc. Furthermore, she was fortunate to participate in ‘Sirisangabo’, ‘Sri Wickrama’ and ‘Samudradevi’, great dramas which exposed the rich Sri Lankan culture to the world. Visha was one of the few privileged dancers to perform at the dance concert held in honour of world renowned maestro Pundit Ravi Shankar during his famous visit to Sri Lanka in 1981.

Whilst dancing with Chithrasena troupe, in 1981 she joined the academic staff- of Carey College where she has trained and nurtured hundreds of male students on traditional dancing at a time when the urban youth were not keen in learning this fine art. She had produced many nationally acclaimed male dancers during her tenure at Carey College.

In 1994, Visha joined the staff of Musaeus College, Colombo where she nurtured many students to become well known traditional female dancers to the Sri Lankan arena for over 14 years.

She spearheaded many creative traditional and folk dancing extravaganza s such as ‘Nupura’, ‘Navanjana’, ‘Yuga Perahara’, ‘Nruthyahara’, ‘Swetha’, ‘Miyasi Vasanthaya’, ‘Thuryaya'.

International Mask Art Conference - Bali, Indonesia held in December 2011 was another international event where Visha represented Sri Lanka.

She currently holds the position of Dancing Instructor at Wycherley International School which is one of the oldest international educational institutions in Sri Lanka.

According to Visha, her biggest achievement was the highly praised performance of six hundred students selected from schools who were trained in a very short time at 2006 South Asian Games opening Ceremony at Sugathadasa Stadium.

Visha is the only Sri Lankan Dancing Instructor who is holding a regional directorial position at an Indian International School chain.

She holds this position at prestigious Ryan International School with 120 branches throughout India and one in Sharjah, UAE and spends two months or more every year in New Delhi training Indian students in traditional Sri Lankan dancing.