For the sheer joy of dance
Naomi Rajaratnam’s dance lessons have never been the average social dancing class. Rather, they are done for the joy of teaching dance and giving back to people. As her students relate, Naomi handpicks the dancers and never charges a cent. They themselves aren’t professional dancers and do it for the same kind of joy and love for dancing that flows from their teacher. Naomi simply wants to see her students “dancing at their most excellent.”
Naomi Rajaratnam. Pix by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
This is the energy they look to carry onto ‘Grace & Glory’ presented by Naomi’s dance school With My Feet, which will take place at Bishop’s College Auditorium on August 17 and 18.
Busy with rehearsals, Naomi and her principal dancers Manuja Hughes and Kushan Seneviratne, nevertheless give us a sneak peek into the work that’s going into the show.
One of the key aspects of any ‘With My Feet’ production is that they are all different. Grace & Glory will feature multiple genres of dancing, with one or two that seemingly don’t match performed simultaneously to one song. This is Naomi trying to show her audience that many things can be done with a single piece of music.
Manuja explains that Grace & Glory defies genre by incorporating a mix of dances that include Latin, ballroom, contemporary, jazz, ballet and even Kandyan and low country dance.
Parts of the show will include, for example, classical dance moves done to beatboxing, hip hop etc. These different genres of dance will be portrayed by a multi-talented cast who range in age from 12 years upwards. Manuja herself will be performing all the ballroom items, most of the Latin solos and the finale.
Manuja Hughes
Though her core was always classical ballet, Naomi is familiar with the different styles of dancing she is showcasing.Her own experience extends to learning Kandyan dance under the legendary Chitrasena.
“To be successful in anything, you have to be open and current,” she explains. Naomi keeps up-to-date watching dancing shows on television, which helps build her already vast knowledge. But it’s her creative vision and attention to detail that gives the show its defining quality.
Manuja explains the show will be interesting from both the audience’s perspective and as a dancer, “because it challenges you to push yourself and try to perform items that are not your comfort zone.”
According to her, the dancers “do pretty much anything that’s asked of them within an item, all because of Naomi’s vision and her ability to realise a dancer’s potential before they know it themselves.”
“She harnesses the best of each dancer individually to make a very unique group item,” Manuja says. The reverence for Naomi’s innate knowledge, skill and ability to impart her wisdom is evident in both her principal dancers.
Kushan Seneviratne
Fondly known as Aunty Naomi to all her students, she has always strived to push them to be the best version of themselves. In fact, many of them didn’t have any specialities in dance when they first came to her.
After some playful prompting from Naomi and Manuja, Kushan admits that he began dance classes along with a friend to “eyeball all the girls”. He only joined in on the actual routines at Naomi’s insistence.
He recalls the moment when Naomi asked him if he owned Latin pants and Latin shoes and if he could bring them the next time he came. He had replied with a “yes” to everything, though he didn’t have any idea what they were. “Because they were too afraid to say no!” Manuja chimes in with a chuckle.
Manuja herself has been dancing competitively since she was a child, and has been part of Naomi’s school since she was 16. She has been involved in almost every single With My Feet production since 2000, though she took a long break after moving to England in 2004 and got back into it five years ago.
She attributes the relative ease of rehearsing to her long-term dancing partner Kushan. “You need to trust your partner, you need to have a bond,” she says.
As Kushan puts it, when Naomi’s troupe comes to dance, “it’s like a family coming together.”
| In aid of Devsiri Sevana | |
| Since 2000, every show by With My Feet has been in aid of the Devsiri Sevana Elders Home, a non-denominational home for destitute elders. The funds from Grace & Glory will be directed towards the same cause. The home is very close to Naomi’s heart, as her aunts were well cared for there. The dancers also maintain a tradition where they share a meal with the elders. Naomi herself got back into teaching dance after a lapse of ten years, and tells us that her WOW (Works of Wonder) church and the pastors were her driving force. As she puts it, the show is simply “by His grace, for His glory.” Tickets and box plan for the show are at the Bishop’s College Auditorium. Tickets are priced at Rs. 4500, Rs. 3500, Rs. 2500, Rs.2000 and Rs.1000.
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