Kandyan and Odissi in step together in New York
Thaji Dias and Amandi Gomes: Evoking emotion
They will step in tune not only to the rhythmic Kandyan beats, but also to haunting Odissi music. They will introduce into the cultural melting pot of the ‘Big Apple’, our own beats of bera and the fluidity of Kandyan dance – the legacy of Vajira’s imperious grace and Chitrasena’s majestic style.
Performing on 1 and 2 October at the Fall for Dance festival (happening from 21 September to 2 October) in New York will be a team from the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya in a dance performance produced and co-performed by Nrityagram, the renowned dance ensemble from Bangalore. Thenceforward the team will tour with performances at many destinations across the USA.
Produced and choreographed by Surupa Sen of Nrityagram, assisted by the Kalayathanaya’s Heshma Wignaraja, it will be a repeat of the dance act called Ahuti (meaning ‘Offering’) performed in 2019 in the USA and India, then curtailed by COVID but now springing into renewed vigour once again.
In rehearsal: The dancers heading to New York. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
The dancers from the Chitrasena company will be Thaji Dias, Amandi Gomes, Kushan Dharmarathna, Geeth Premachandra and accompanying with his Kandyan drum will be Koshan Mapatuna.
The Kandyan mixes well with the Odissi, and as one reviewer of the 2019 performances said in The New York Times, “The interplay of styles is exciting and illuminating…… The detail is extraordinary. Shimmering hands radiate the brilliance of a gem. A sudden widening of the distance between thumb and forefinger has more impact than most dancers’ leaps. When Shiva opens his third eye, you know it.”
Both Nrityagram and Chitrasena do not generally collaborate with others, being rather unique in their stance, Heshma tells us. And it is no easy task collaborating. Both have to work ‘on the same page’. However they happened to ‘gel’ together very well so it’s been a happy marriage of styles.
While Heshma says they are honoured to work with Nrityagram and to be at Fall for Dance, it has been trying getting everything together in these difficult times. Unlike in previous collaborations with Nrityagram they could not travel for long periods together so they had “one dancer at a time go and train there whenever possible”.
Working with Nrityagram Heshma says is a ‘beautiful experience every time’.
“We learn so much and it helps us to search deep within us – (by understanding them) we get to know more about ourselves, what more we can do, with our form and just working with their artistic director Surupa Sen is always an experience we look forward to.”
“I’d just say if we were invited 10 more times I would jump at it because each time it’s different – each time it just helps us to grow so much more.”
Heshma and the team will leave shortly for the USA, with just three weeks to add the finishing touches.
The Fall for Dance festival is one of the major dance festivals in the USA and features five dance companies in each of their six nights.
Talking of the audience response to the mingling of Odissi and Kandyan, Heshma recalls 2012 when they performed Samhara in 2012 (also with Nrityagram) at the Joyce Theatre, the Mecca of dance in New York. In the packed house were Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Morris and other famed dancers. It was a sublime success.
The next performance in New York too will reveal to new audiences the spirit of Kandyan dance – the flaming leaping heart of our own indigenous art…
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