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Arts Barefeet in
Motion at Chitrasena fundraiser Over the next
20 years, this family dedicated themselves to safeguarding the wellbeing
of Kandyan dancing and has held the school together by conducting
classes in over 15 different locations. The future
of the Kalayathanaya was partly ensured when President Kumaratunga
gifted Chitrasena and Vajira a block of land, situated on the corner
of Elvitigala Mawatha and Park Road on which they could rebuild
the school. Chitrasena is now 82 and the family is eager to complete
the work on the Kalayathanaya, and present it to the maestro. "Barefeet
in Motion is a festival of fabrics, and will be the Kalayathanaya's
next performance," says Upeka, the elder daughter of Chitrasena
and Vajira. "Apart from the dance recital, you would be able
to view the work of famous artists who will be presenting their
creations at a silent auction." The work of
Dominic Sansoni, Barbara Sansoni, Laki Senanayake, Anoma Wijewardena,
Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Somabandu Vidyapathi, along with numerous
others will be presented. These works of art will be on display
on February 8, leading up to the show and on February 9 from 10.00
am to 3.00 pm. The costumes
for the evening will be by Barefoot and will showcase a range of
Barefoot fabrics and garments through movement, dance and music.
About 15 chosen dancers will perform. The grand finale will be a
traditional dance performance by Upeka and her dancers, while the
entire performance will see the collective talents of the daughters
and grand-daughters of Chitrasena and Vajira, as they pay tribute
to their mentors and to the art of Kandyan dance itself. According to
granddaughter Heshma, the proceeds of this performance will be for
the development of the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya. "We are truly
grateful to all at Barefoot who have lent their support to us and
who helped us to stage this performance. This is the
beginning of a series of fundraising events organised to rebuild
the Kalayathanaya." "Barefeet in Motion," is set to be staged on March 8 at 8.00 p.m., with the venue for this spectacular evening of dance being the Barefoot Gallery itself. A very limited number of tickets will be available at the Barefoot Gallery from February 24 onwards. Bringing elegance
and passion under one baton Dr. James Ross,
a young British conductor, was invited by the Symphony Orchestra
of Sri Lanka to conduct the concert. Dr. Ross, who wrote his doctorate
on French Opera winning the Sir Donald Tovey Memorial Prize, was
a scholar at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read
history. He is currently
Music Director of the Oxford Christ Church Festival Orchestra, the
Welwyn Garden City Music Society and Royal College of Pediatrics
Chorus and Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Midland Youth
Orchestra in Birmingham. He also teaches music at Oxford University. I asked the
question once "is there a need for a conductor at all?"
Quite apart from inviting a visiting conductor, an exercise requiring
both money and organization, can a conductor make any difference
to the performance of the orchestra, more than just beating time
to keep everyone together and bringing in players on cue? An ideal conductor
is a synthesis of the "elegant" school fathered by Mendelssohn
and the "passionate" school inspired by Wagner. A conductor,
unlike an instrumentalist or a singer, has to play on an orchestra.
His instrument is the multitude of human instruments, each one a
musician with a will of his or her own, and he must cause them to
play like one instrument with a single will. He must have
enormous authority, to say nothing of psychological insight in dealing
with a large group. He also must be a master of the mechanics of
conducting and have an inconceivable amount of knowledge. He must
have a profound perception of the inner meanings of music and an
uncanny power of communication. The chief element
in the conductor's technique of communication is the preparation.
Everything must be made known to the orchestra before it happens.
The conductor must not only make his orchestra play but must make
them want to play. He must exalt them, lift them, start their adrenaline
pumping, and whatever he does, he must make them love the music,
as he loves it. But perhaps, the chief requirement of all is that
he be humble before the composer and never interpose himself between
the music and the audience. That the players
were indeed fired up could be noted from the very first bars of
the overture by Glinka. Maybe, towards
the middle of the Beethoven Symphony, some drop in quality could
be discerned, but the concert ended in the same way as it started...
"Con brio". Tchaikovsky's
"Andante Cantabile" arranged for a string orchestra was
an unfortunate choice. The exquisite "Andante" is the
second movement of the first String Quartet by Tchaikovsky. This is the
second time I have heard it arranged for a string orchestra and
it doesn't seem to work. The noticeable
improvement in the orchestra could be seen in the string section,
and the quality of the violas (in the Beethoven Symphony in particular,
it was indeed admirable). A great deal of the credit for this must
go to Mr. Ananda Dabare, whose pupils, and the rest too, are obviously
guided by a true leader of the orchestra. The weaknesses
were in the woodwind, especially the oboes (a difficult instrument
to play at the best of time) and in the French Horns. We can only
hope that the standards reached will be maintained and that future
conductors would have learnt lessons from this young, enthusiastic,
learned and excellent conductor. I will leave
the players and the audience to judge his performance and the performance
of the orchestra. That he was
able to get the response he required from the players willingly
and gladly, one could see from their faces. That the audience
appreciated the result could be judged by their spontaneous and
prolonged applause. Art on wood Nizam Saldin
of Apex International, the firm responsible for this unusual art
form, said a team of around 16 works together to create the pictures.
"Sometimes
one picture may take around a month and a half to complete; it's
such a long process," he explains. Initially the
designers work out the colour scheme based on sketches and once
the appropriate colours are selected, the tree shavings are picked,"
Mr. Saldin said. They choose
from as many as 140 trees to get the correct shades. "No chemicals
are used in any of our work," Mr. Saldin stresses, "it
is one hundred percent eco-friendly. We treat the wood before it's
used so that it will last for a long time." Once the shavings
are collected, fine tools are used to cut and shape them and they
are then laid one top of another with a special gum. This process
helps give the 3-D effect, Mr. Saldin said. Being a labour-intensive
process, the pictures don't come cheap. Prices range
from Rs. 3,000 to a hefty Rs. 150,000 per picture. The company
has linked up with a firm in Japan and the first shipment of wood
shaving pictures was shipped there recently. There have also been inquiries from England and Germany and Mr. Saldin is hopeful that these unique Lankan creations will find a good market in these countries as well. Non-violent
themes on canvas Chandra's work
consists of drawings and paintings, mostly oil on canvas. Though
she followed Rolls classes in life drawing she is basically self-taught.
"I like non-violent themes and wish to depict simple folk engaged
in day-to-day activities. The amazing beauty of South Asian sculpture
is a boundless source of inspiration to me," she says. "Chandra
Malalgoda Bandaranayake's paintings remind me of the work of a few
other women artists such as Marie Laurencine, Orvida and Amrita
Shergil. Chandra's work shows a sensitive attachment to children
and young people. It is the vision of a very sensitive artist",
wrote Stanley Abeysinghe (former Principal, Government College of
Fine Arts, presently Dept. of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya). Chandra's paintings reflect a certain cultural heritage, a synthesis of her own emotions, and the cultural and historical background of her country and as a wider unit, that of South Asia. Kala Korner
By Dee Cee With her second
collection of short stories, she has joined the ranks of up and
coming new writers. The fact that
this collection of stories was short-listed for the Gratiaen Award
2001 is ample proof that the work is of a high standard. "With
a discernible talent in the art of story telling, as well as the
creative use of the language, the author has demonstrated a considerable
commitment to a framework of professionalism and refinement in constructing
her short stories," the panel of judges for the Gratiaen Award
stated in the citation. (Professor Sitralega Managuru, Dr. Hemamala
Ratwatte and Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda served on the panel). To Professor
Rajiva Wijesinha the stories in the book exemplify the development
of a talent that is committed to understanding society at large
rather than any particular segment. "It can
also vary its tone, as much as the subject matter, while the range
of characters and their different motivating factors ensure a comprehensive
survey of society in its varied manifestations," he says in
his foreword. He was also
happy that more and more new reading material in English is being
made available by works of this nature, particularly because the
Sabaragamuwa University has changed its degree syllabus to include
Sri Lankan writing. He paid a glowing
tribute to Punyakanthi Wijenaike and James Goonewardene for their
pioneering efforts and was glad that the tradition is being continued
with the emergence of young talented writers. Madhubashini
echoed the sentiments of young writers when she said that they find
it difficult to find publishers, particularly for English writers.
She is grateful
to Vijitha Yapa Publications who undertook the task of publishing
her work. Encyclopaedia
of Sri Lanka Charlie Gunawardena
and I have known each other for five decades from the time I joined
the Dinamina news desk in the early fifties when he was News Editor.
He moved over
to the Foreign Ministry's Information Service and thence to the
Commonwealth Secretariat and made London his home. Coming back
to the book, I was thrilled to hear he was working on something
we had missed all these years - an A to Z guide to Sri Lanka. I am happy
I was able to help to fill in a few gaps and the book is now ready
for release on February 25. The publisher,
Sterling Publishers of India has picked Sarasavi Bookshop for the
distribution. Meanwhile,
the second volume of Percy Jayamanne's 'Lama ha Yovun Vishwakoshaya',
the Sinhala encyclopaedia he is editing, is now out. It is a well-compiled
publication and he hopes to complete it in 15 volumes. It covers both
local and global subjects. The first two volumes deal with the first
letter of the Sinhala alphabet. Epa on Bradman Epa (as we
all call him) has been involved with cricket from his school days
having played for Nalanda and his love for the game continues to
this day. In his earlier
book, 'Ma Dutu Cricket Lova', he collated his recollections over
a period of four decades both in the local and global cricket world.
His new effort will introduce Sinhala readers to the greatest cricketer of all time. |
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