Cleopatra the Cover Story

Today's cover story flashes back to the second century B.C when Julius Caesar was a Roman army General in ancient Rome. The ballet "Cleopatra" of Chandana Wickramasinghe highlights the ancient story with Dilu who plays the role of Cleopatra.

Cleopatra is one of the sixteen ballets from "Kanya" the main ballet with different dance acts namely heritage Kite dance "Vijeya Kumare" Mayura Sandesaya, Peacock dance, Flight of the bumble bee out of which he became world renowned for his unique dancing and choreography. He loved learning styles of dancing and was encouraged by his parents at the age of three. Chandana's gurus were Chitrasena and Vajira and several others who guided him in the field of Kandyan Dancing to start with and were awarded "Ves" by Kulasiri. He performed in Sama ballet and went to India to Shantha Nikethan to learn Indian dancing Kathakali and Manipuri. Chandana became a teacher and succeeded in his professional talent of dancing. In 1996 he founded the Dancers Guild in which in a period of ten years he had six hundred students and a professional dance group of forty.

The many dances he performed included Folk to Traditional, Arabic to Fusion, Nature like the Peacock and the flight of the bumble bee. Chandana performed in Thailand, Malaysia and last year thirty five artistes performed at the Peterborough art festival in England adding English versions for his latest ballets.

He has also performed in thirty six countries around the world and wherever he goes he always remembers his motherland and his birthplace Moratuwa.