CHITRASENA Dance Co is Sri Lanka’s oldest dance company, and that’s saying a lot in a country where dance reigns supreme.
Chitrasena dancers
For the past 70 years, the Chitrasena Dance Company has been touring globally to theatres like the Bolshoi, Sadler’s Wells and New York’s Joyce Theatre, it was also the first Asian dance company to come to Australia, sponsored by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1963.
Now the Sydney Festival director, Lieven Bertel, has secured the company for performances and we’ll see them for a night here too.
Founded by Chitrasena and Vajira, today’s company features granddaughters Heshma Wignaraja as artistic director and Thaji Dias as Principal Artist.
Representing one of the world’s oldest continuous dance forms, “Dancing for the Gods” charts the evolution of the joyful ancient Kandyan dance tradition and transports it boldly into the present.
The late Canberra critic Hope Hewitt wrote of the company’s previous performance at the Playhouse in 1972, “There was … a strong feeling of sheer delight about the entire performance last night, which is an attitude to the life the dancers themselves celebrate.”
ANU graduate Arun Abey, is the patron of the Dance Co, with a unique link to the past. His parents initiated that first tour in 1963 and again in 1972. Now, over 40 years later, Arun is supporting the return of Chitrasena back to Australia, and comments, “Australia in 1963 had virtually no Asians, let alone Sri Lankans, was just establishing a national ballet company and was symbolised by meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. Notwithstanding this, my parents were passionate about arranging an Australian tour by the Chitrasena Company. Given that they had no resources and no contacts, the idea was audacious, if not ludicrous. But they persisted and succeeded and Chitrasena’s return to Canberra is long overdue.”
“Dancing for the Gods”, Chitrasena Dance Co, Canberra Theatre Centre, 8pm, January 15, 2015, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.
The post Sri Lankan artists ‘Dancing for the Gods’ appeared first on Canberra CityNews.