A feast of ballet
With a cast of 600 students, the Deanna School of Dancing presents two new shows, “La Bayadère” and “The Dream”
Lovers of classical ballet can feast on arabesques and pirouettes, all executed with smooth elegance and grace when the Deanna School of Dancing presents another one of their shows this month. The school which was established in 1980 has been successful in nurturing and producing professional dancers who are as serious as they are passionate about what they do. The ballets will be directed by Deanna Jayasuriya and choreographed by her daughters, Natalie and Natasha.
Natasha Jayasuriya
There will be two shows to look forward to: “La Bayadère” – A story of eternal love, fate, vengeance, and justice is performed by the senior school. La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) is a ballet originally done by the French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus in 1877.
The Deanna School will be doing the Royal Ballet adaptation which will be choreographed by Natalie Jayasuriya. It is the story of a warrior Solor, who has slipped away from his hunting comrades to brave the sacred woods, to be with Nikiya, a Bayadère from a temple, with whom he has fallen madly in love. However, their love seems to be thwarted from the start because the Grand Brahmin also declares his love for Nikiya after he sees her dance.
Deanna’s eldest daughter Natalie, who moved back to Sri Lanka, is a professional dancer trained by Deanna herself and two major dance academies – The Elmhurst Ballet School and Pineapple Studios in the United Kingdom. During her time there she was instructed in classical and modern ballet, tap dancing and Spanish dance and also studied drama and music. Natalie’s love affair with dance began at the tender age of two and a half.
Younger sister Natasha has been dancing since she was two and is recognized as an accomplished dancer. Her dance background boasts an impressive portfolio of classical ballet, hip hop, street jazz, tap, Spanish, Ballroom and Latin. She has a Gold Standard qualification in Ballroom Latin American dance and Intermediate (Royal Academy of Dancing, UK) in Ballet.
Natalie Jayasuriya
The second recital “The Dream”, choreographed by Natasha is a fairytale about a little girl who is driven by her passion for dance. This will be performed by the junior school. “The story line for the ballet first sprang up in the mind of our mother about three months back. Since then we have developed the story to what it is now,” says Natasha. This is a heart-warming story of a gifted little girl, who dreams of one day becoming a world-class ballerina.
“The show will have a cast of about 600 students,” says Natasha. “Since there are a lot of juniors, we thought of breaking up the cast and performing for four days so we could give everyone a chance. There will be children as young as two years performing. It’s going to be a great show,” she adds enthusiastically.
Both productions will be directed by Deanna Jayasuriya. The beautiful costumes are designed by Natalie and Natasha. The shows will take place from June 13-16 from 7 p.m. onwards at the Bishop’s College Auditorium, Colombo 2. Tickets are on sale at the Deanna School, 30/63H, Longden Place, Colombo 7, tel: 2504771/2. See also www.deannaschoolofdance.com.
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