Book Review
Kandyan Dance is the central matter of this book
It's the middle that matters
by Ashley Halpe,
Kandyan Dance, by Sicille P.C. Kotelawala
This is the first book in English devoted
entirely to 'Kandyan' or Udarata dance. Udarata Netun Kalawa the
Sinhala work by that great personality of the ritual arts J.L. Usederaman
preceded it.
Sicille Kotelawala covers the ground very thoroughly taking a bird's
eye view of the country and the Vijayan story as her starting point. She
cites the Mahavamsa reference to music, singing and drumming heard by Vijaya
soon after he landed at Thambapanni.
Moving to Folk Religion and the Dances of Sri Lanka, she reminds
the reader of the wealth of dances mentioned in Folklore, Literature
and Poetry, noting that while "the beliefs of folk religion have
no place in the teachings of the Buddha," the rural people have "lived
with their myths, legends and folklore" and "translated them
into ceremonies, rituals and dances."
The Thovil and Bali dances, the creation of masks and the preparation
of the ritual altars have a profoundly significant, essentially religious
place in the everyday life besides the value of stimulating the aesthetic
sense of the villager and animating the life of the countryside perceived
by the artist in the scholar in Sicille Kotelawala.
They tap deep into the life-experience and the collective consciousness
of the Sinhalese and in this regard the author makes the very important
comment that since the dance forms of Thovil and Bali are unknown in India
or anywhere else they "represent the traditions of the earliest inhabitants
of Sri Lanka," the people described as the people of Ravana by Theja
Gunawardhana
Chapters 3-11 exhaustively categorize every aspect of the central matter
of the book, the Kandyan Dance. This 'complete art form' while "refined
and polished in the field of pure Dance ('NRITTYA') and with a highly developed
system of 'TALAYA' (beat)" is rooted in "one of the most ancient
folk ceremonies of Sri Lanka, the elaborate ritual known as the KOHOMBA
YAK-KANKARIYA or the KOHOMBA KANKARIYA," presented in chapters 4 and
5. The author gives the main legend of the origin of the ritual, the healing
of King Panduvasdev (there are other legends, too, as Anuradha Seneviratne
notes) and outlines the preparations for the ritual, the altars, its constituent
parts and the dance movements.
The remaining chapters (6-11) are on the History of the Dance and Music,
the Kandy Esala Perahera, the Making of a Traditional Kandyan Dancer, The
Ves Costume, Vannam and Bera and are followed by a select bibliography.
The steps, rhythms and hand positions, the drums and supporting instruments
are carefully identified. Rhythms are given in the dance language of the
Ves dancer and the stages of training are outlined.
The drums are described in detail, special attention being given to
the principal instrument, the Geta Bere including a full-page diagram.
Another such diagram identifies the 64 items of the dancer's costume, and
excellent colour plates illustrate the 12 hand positions, the drums, the
Pooja Dance, the salutation, the Bulat-pade and also some great performers,
among them Heenbaba and Surasena.
Reflecting on this copious material and dwelling on the illustrations
the reader can scarcely fail to be struck again by the central historical
irony of this noble medium, defined by the very name "Kandyan"
Dance.
The original sacred Ves dance was performed by highly trained initiates,
one could well say shamans or ritual priests, in a setting and atmosphere
charged with religious and mythic significance. The only other performance
situations were of the "solo poetic dances expressing a dominant idea"
which, as Sicille Kotelawala states in the chapter on these dances, the
Vannam, were performed in splendour as part of the ceremonial of the King
and his Court.
To research and describe this tradition and its sociology and to record
its minutiae is to perform a work of piety requiring enormous commitment
and organisational skill. Mrs. Kotelawala has carried it through most effectively
to produce an attractive and valuable book
One wishes, however, that she had used her knowledge and resources to
carry the work somewhat further. What I have in mind would, of course require
a huge amount of exacting and complex graphic and editorial work. This
book, like all the earlier accounts by Raghavan, Makulloluwa and Anuradha
Seneviratne does not provide notations and scansions which would enable
readers to make sense of the elaborate taxonomy and the lists of names.
An initiate or an informed spectator would, of course, know precisely
what Salugath Kathava or Dharpana Darshaneeya Yakkama or "Thatheiyath"
or "Domikitha Thakadon" signify in performance terms but then
anyone with such knowledge would not need the book at all. One must assume
that the purpose of a detailed account is to enable an informed appreciation
of actual performances and to enthuse the reader into seeking a fuller
experience.
Something of that inner life is captured in Nalini Jayasuriya's fine
poem Sicille Dancing on p.84. One wishes there were more such torches and
clarions conveying something of the princely pure energy of the dancer
in full flight, the utterly beautiful arabesques created by a group in
movement (particularly seen from an upper level) the extraordinary sense
of banked up energies that the great dancers exude as they promenade, the
horripilating vibrancy of the drums at their full range of resonance, the
occasional glimpses of cationic intensity when a gleam from the old mythic
depths shines through in despite of commercial glitz and individualistic
theatricality.
The photographs could have caught some of this but while they are extremely
competent the effect is documentary rather than inspired. One thinks of
the indescribable fire that animates the famous photographs of Nureyev
Margot Fonteyn, Martha Graham.
It is a pity that Mrs. Kotelawala's editorial advisers did not counsel
against the blurring of focus that results from the obtrusiveness of the
autobiographical. But if the result is that the account of the dance in
all its richness is sandwiched between images of and salutes to the author,
the discerning and sympathetic reader will no doubt remember that in a
sandwich it is the middle that matters most, and be indulgently appreciative
of some charming stills of the author as a beautiful young danseuse.
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