There’ll be dance, art and story-telling

It is a combination of different dimensions of art – dance, painting and theatre – presented under one roof. It is also an exhibition of previously unseen talent and novel methods. Chandri Peris, Sri Lanka’s celebrated dancer turned choreographer once more presents ‘New Directions’ – a festival of dance, art and children’s theatre – at the Lionel Wendt, Colombo.

“The dancers come from different backgrounds and fields – Latin American, Kandyan, Low Country and Classical Ballet,” says Chandri, explaining that in this performance, they will blur the lines between separate techniques to explore different avenues of doing each dance form. The dances are being fashioned by four choreographers – Chandri himself, Ravibandu Vidyapathi, Naomi Rajaratnam and Nadeera Rajapakse.

Nadeera, whose maiden attempt at choreography was for last year’s festival, is an accomplished dancer whose breathtaking grace onstage has mesmerised many an audience. She has spent over a decade in Paris, where she obtained a PhD in Economics in addition to studying Classical Ballet. “I feel that Classical Ballet has been the foundation for me to expand into other forms of dance,” says Nadeera, also expressing her gratitude to Oosha Garten for her formative training.

For this event, her choreography revolves around the choices women have to make between working away from home and their families. All the movements, she says, are inspired by these choices: separation, fear of the unknown or exploitation and unfulfilled expectations. “The nice thing about modern dancing,” says Nadeera, “is that it’s all very abstract and the audience can interpret it in the way they want to.”

As a choreographer, Nadeera feels that she works quite differently. “It is quite a challenge to translate the picture I see in my head into the movements of a dancer’s body,” she says, adding that the dancers – a diverse blend of performers including university students, a medical surgeon and other professionals – have enriched the performance by being interactive and helping to shape the process of the dance.

Dance teacher Naomi Rajaratnam, contributes her long years of expertise with ‘Seasons of the Heart’ – four items to be performed by her students. In keeping with the theme ‘New Directions’ Naomi has moved away from her usual forte, Latin American and Ballroom dancing, to a mixture of different techniques. The seasons portrayed in the dances reflect the awakening in spring, the green and glowing circle of life of summer, the autumn time of harvest, abundance and joy, and winter purity of heart.

The art exhibition that will take place in the Harold Peiris Gallery of the Lionel Wendt will exhibit the previously unseen works of several talented artists, many of whom are exhibiting for the first time. The artists include, Prageeth Ratnayake, Prasanna Upali, Priyantha Abeysundera, Thusitha Priyankara, Azra Yesufally and Kshanthi Wickremaratne. There will be a total of over 40 paintings, of different themes and mediums.

For the first time this year, ‘New Directions’ will introduce the concept of Children’s Story Telling. “Children’s Story Telling is very popular in England,” says Chandri who now lives and works in London. It is theatre entertainment exclusively for children, he explains, where there is often active audience participation and role-play.

The Yolande School of Speech and Drama will present a short skit, which is a modern fairy tale princess story. A production in Sinhalese by Somalatha Subasinghe’s drama school will also take place.

The intention of ‘New Directions’ was to produce a festival of theatrical arts and fine arts in a single venue, says Chandri. Next year he plans to involve even more artistes, and include adult theatre as well. “The idea is to pack in as many events as possible on the same day, at the same venue,” he says, adding that he also hopes that the choreographers will each be able to pick a student whom they in turn will train to choreograph an event for the following year.

The dance performances will take place on September 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. and the children’s story telling will be from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Lionel Wendt. The Art Exhibition will be on from September 1-3 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.