Creating a platform for the thinking dancer
View(s):The Goethe Institut, in collaboration with the Contemporary Dance Forum of Sri Lanka, presents the second Colombo Dance Platform, curated by Ong Ken Sen, a world renowned Artistic Director from Singapore.
The focus of this year’s platform is on a multidisciplinary approach and will consist of three completely different evenings of triple bills showcasing works involving theatre, music, puppetry, architecture, and film. The curated artists and their collaborators have each developed a short piece around an existing or newly created archive.
The curator in conversation with the members of the platform chose the theme of Archive Fever: Dancing with the Archive, explains Ruhanie Perera who is participant and was also a part of the initial discussions and framing of the Dance Platform 2012 with Ken Sen. “The theme of the platform also references the Jacques Derrida text ‘archive fever’ – and ties into the platform participants’ experimentation with movement, and their expression of the ‘archive’ which is not passive; rather it is alive, and consistently shaping contemporary reality,” says Ruhanie. “Each of the participants has thus chosen an archive to work with – film, text, puppets, sound, costume, rhythm, document – and the work created, in movement, will engage with their chosen archive. they are, in effect, dancing anew with the archive.”
The collaborative intention of the curator and participating artists is to rethink their own perceptions of dance performance, in the context of multimedia collaborations and introduce the concept of a ‘Thinking Dancer’ within the local culture of dance spectatorship.
Each of the three days will be used to show case multiple artists: beginning on November 7, with Power of Play, Upendra Malith of Natanda Dance Theatre and Mahesh Umagiliya, followed by Kapila Palihawadana of Natanda Dance Theatre and Arpeggio on November 8, with Venuri Perera, Floating Space and Ravibandu Vidyapathy to close on November 9.
The Punchi Theatre in Borella will host the Colombo Dance Platform events, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. each day. The tickets are priced at Rs. 300 and Rs. 500 and are on sale at the venue. Running alongside the performances will be an exhibition of the work of Somabandu Vidyapathi at The Goethe Institut, Colombo from November 5 – 9.
Moving to a new beat-- Some of the Dance Platform artistes. Pic by Lekha Edirisinghe
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