Modern dance, promoting an awareness of nature and bringing creativity to the lives of young children may seem an unusual combination. Yet this is precisely the work that distinguishes the nATANDA Dance Theatre of Sri Lanka from any other troupe in the country.
In its latest production, Ravens, performed on Saturday, July 3, at Hillwood College in Kandy, nATANDA re-examined common perceptions of the crow. The dance drama followed a group of ravens that struggle to co-exist, depicting the contradictions involved in their daily survival, and explored both the ‘human’ and animalistic natures of this often-misunderstood bird.
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| Backstage at Ravens: Young dancers in the wings |
As with previous productions, artistic director Kapila Palihawadana used dance to challenge Sri Lankan audiences’ views of nature. In Ravens, the focus is a well-known bird that has been stigmatised by prevalent social myths. “The crow is not simply a nuisance that lives on rubbish, but a living creature with different personalities. We show the bird’s emotional and social behaviour—how it works with other birds, and the love and violence it displays in its daily life. We allow the bird to communicate with the public.”
While nATANDA is known for an arresting, contemporary dance style that combines ballet, yoga and Kandyan dance, this latest creation is undoubtedly more powerful than previous ones. Dancer, Ruchira Chathuranga explains “nATANDA does not confine itself to a fixed style. Rather, it adapts its choreography to creatively reflect on different topics. Contemporary dance helps us to constantly re-create our art form and make it socially relevant. This is why it is so powerful.”
The Kandy performance of Ravens was viewed by an audience of over 100, including children and parents of Hillwood College, representatives of local and foreign cultural institutions and members of the general public. One Kandy resident described his response to the performance. “I was impressed by the dancers’ level of performance and how they moved with rhythm, synchronicity and deep emotion. During the one-hour performance, I shared their feeling and felt I was also there with them inside their performance.”
Ravens is the result of a year-long process of research and vigorous training—a process that enabled nATANDA dancers to perform with technical expertise and soul-searching intensity. Dancers studied and observed the bird for half a year in parks, rubbish dumps, buses and other locations. Describing the physical and mental vigour of their training, Chathuranga remarks, “Ravens is extremely fast-paced, and as dancers, we needed to push ourselves well beyond our physical limits. Dance is like a moving meditation, and as nATANDA’s training brings a huge power to my mind and spirit, it enabled me to feel at one with the raven while I performed.”
The creation of Ravens involved a six-month process of community-dance education workshops conducted in various schools in Kandy and Colombo. Bridging boundaries of social class, language and religion, over 100 school children, mostly with no prior experience in dance, were trained to perform alongside professional dancers in various performances.
A parent of two Hillwood College child performers described the effects of his daughters’ involvement in Ravens. “I really noticed the changes in their personality after their participation in the workshops and performances. My daughters have always been very shy, but recently, I found that they not only feel more comfortable performing on stage, but also in speaking to other people.”
‘Ravens’ was supported by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, and the British Council and Alliance Francaise in Kandy acted as its publicity sponsors. |
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