Society at a glance through dance
View(s):The Arpeggio Creative Dance Academy get ready with their latest production “Seven Disasters”
By Tarini Pilapitiya
“I give these kids something to strive for,” chief choreographer and founder of the Arpeggio Creative Dance Academy Nilan Maligaspe says as he launches into a description of his latest production “Seven Disasters” (Vinasha Hathak) to be staged on June 24 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.
Story pix and Magazine cover courtesy Nilan Maligaspe
The Arpeggio Creative Dance Academy was founded Maligaspe 23 years ago. A humanitarian by nature Nilan has devoted his life to teaching underprivileged boys and girls the art of dance. His academy teaches children the fine art of Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Hip-Hop, Creative Dance and Traditional Dance and Drama.
Annually the academy presents a production where performers aged 5 to their mid 20’s rally to exhibit their prowess in dance. Nilan’s productions with the academy are ordinarily a marriage of drama and dance.
The performers at the Arpeggio Creative Dance Academy are diverse in background. Nilan speaks of the moving stories of “his kids” – some of whom have been with him throughout his 23-years of service.
Nilan does not pick the children who have ingrained rhythm or who are adept in their technique. His work with Arpeggio is a classroom where children are taught “much more than dance” he says. Children who embody “passion” are chosen and throughout the years he moulds them into becoming performers and as well as good standing individuals.
One of his principal dancers Pradeep Gunaratne, who bagged the award for best actor for his performance in “The Lovers of Thambapanni” (Thambapanni Pem Yuwala) at the 2014 annual State Dance and Ballet festival, entered Arpeggio’s doors at the age of 14 starting with the traditional Kandyan dance “Ves”.
The now 24 year old dancer is taking the role as one of the choreographers in this years production, which he also will be dancing in. “I show them a path for development and growth,” Maligaspe says of his wholesome teaching.
However, Nilan’s big heart does not let him take his teachings or class for granted, the choreographer instead instills lessons of discipline and decorum within his protege, most who come from economically deprived backgrounds. “The Children are all different,” Nilan smiles “but by the grace of this art they become driven, productive individuals.”
Nilan specialises in both Western and Traditional dances – having experimented over a variety of styles such as Disco, Hip-Hop, Kadyan, Modern, Contemporary and Ballet to name a few.
He enjoys jazzing up his performances with fusions of styles mixing the modern and classical routines for a favorable end result.
The artiste takes many different twists with a lot of his productions for example in his show “Kuveni and Vijaya” Nilan explored the story of origin and facing adversity from Kuveni’s perspective.
Nilan justifies choosing this narrative point-of-view with the comment “Kuveni was one of us, Vijaya was an outsider yet the story is always focused on his journey, what about hers?”.
Nilan’s out of the box work can possibly best be described as a twist to an otherwise ordinary fairy tale – making the content of the production rich in depth and all the more relevant for his audience.
This year with“Seven Disasters” Nilan’s diverse group of students will showcase their dexterity and agility in dance and drama. This production is Nilan’s way of unearthing “Hidden messages of hardship” and making them relevant to modern society.
Every year Nilan is seen changing the dance styles of his productions, preferring to inculcate fusions. The veteran dancer picks up new pieces of material, teaching himself from a range of professionals and the lessons he passes on to his students.
Nilan also invests his time conducting classes at the Goethe Institute in Colombo, Indian Culture Centre (ICCR) Colombo and Sudarshi Hall. He also conducts free classes tounderprivileged children in partnership with the Ware House project, Narada Foundation and Nagaswaththa Project.
The artists philanthropic nature has him circling around Sri Lanka and the globe teaching children dance. Going as far to even concocting his own dance syllabus aptly titled “Emotional Dance” for hearing impaired children.”
On June 24 “Seven Disasters” (Vinasha Hathak) will be a production that will take a thematic narration of seven ‘disasters’ and will be a depiction of the burning problems that individuals face in the modern age. The production will touch on War, Love, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct, Nature, Greed and Social Stigmas and will leave audiences questioning everything.
Much like all his productions Nilan will be at the helm of the production while Sanjeewa Paranamanna will return as Music Director. Nilan who takes great pride in his academy’s performances states that the “Seven Disasters” will greatly revolve around the injustice to the innocent.
Although his dance styles are current Nilan uses a lot of folklore and traditional story telling in his productions, allowing his performances to convey a moral message to their audiences. “I always tell my students that a dancer is an interpreter between the heavens and people,” Nilan says, his compelling stories attracting both senior and junior audience members.
Nilan’s success is he recalls, by aide of his teachers who saw “something” in him – a factor Nilan states is integral for the success of his own kids is his ability to garner their confidence by seeing their abilities and giving them a space to showcase just how limitless their inner “something” is.
When speaking to him about his philosophy on fostering these children he says his classes are four walls and a couple of hours of freedom for most.
Although Nilan teaches his children humane values and strong ethics along with their dance lessons he says “If I can fix one child I call that a success.
I always look at the educational aspect of dance not only the entertainment factor of it,” he laments “I can only guide, it’s up to those who want to internalize my lessons to be living examples of it”
“I’m doing this because it makes me happy” Nilan says misty eyed “I’m watching a development process of the children and these productions are something we can gift to society”. “As a teacher” he adds “I live to take on the challenge and my life’s purpose will be to mould their talents and give them a space to exhibit them,” he says fondly.
‘Seven Disasters’ (Vinasha Hathak) will take place on June 24 at 7 pm at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. Tickets are priced at
Rs. 500, Rs.750, Rs.100, Rs.1500 and are be available at the Venue.
For more information contact Nilan and his team on 0714740799 or 0712740799 or email them at nialnmaligaspe@gmail.com.