Colombo Dance Platform : Space for the Single Body

The curtains opened on this year’s edition of the Colombo Dance Platform to a new energy, new faces and a fresh take on dance. Initiated, funded and presented by the Goethe-Institut, the fourth edition of the Platform aims to help artists, dancers and audiences contextualize contemporary  dance in relation to the regional dance scene. 

The Platform closes on October 9 with a weekend of dance, discussion and workshops offering audiences and critics a chance to participate and nurture their understanding of contemporary and experimental dance.

Curating the event this year is first time curator Venuri Perera.  Although the experienced dancer is no stranger to Colombo Dance Platform, having performed on their stage in  2012/13 Venuri, whose initial training was in Kandyan dance has since branched out into film, theatre, live art and therapeutic movement in several projects at home and abroad.  Currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Visual and Performing Arts and member of the Dance Panel of the Arts Council in Sri Lanka she sums up this year’s Platform as “completely different”, with a local curator taking the helm for the first time and the programme made up predominantly of foreign artistes.

This year’s theme is Shakti: A Space for the Single Body -a concept that Venuri also shares a personal passion for, for Shakti celebrates the primordial divine feminine energy. Focused more on “movement rather than dance”, this year’s platform is a showcase of solo work which aims to rediscover and reinvent ‘dance’ and the ‘female’.

Chey Chankethya- Tuckys Photography

The platform includes artistes from India, Cambodia, Switzerland and Germany, all whom Venuri has performed with as a part of various projects.

Colombo Dance Platform which began this weekend will continue on October 8 and 9. All events are free entry.  For more information, see www.facebook.com/colombodanceplatform/