Archive for the ‘Arts and Theatre’

  • 16 May, 2012
  • 4 Comments
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo

What Samhara Means: A review of Samhara and an unraveling of what it really means for Sri Lankan Dance

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[Editors note: See interview with members of Nrityagram and the Chitrasena Dance Company here.] Samhara is a new dance work created by the Odissi dance ensemble, Nrityagram, together with their long-term friends and collaborators in Sri Lanka, the Chitrasena Dance Company. It was performed over the weekend at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Colombo, fresh off the plane after a successful tour of United States and Mexico, having premiered in India.  In New York it went on the boards at the legendary Joyce Theatre, with none other than Mikhail Baryishnikov in the audience.   The show was choreographed by Nrityagram’s Artistic Director, Surupa Sen, with assistance from Heshma Wignaraja, the Artistic Director of the Chitrasena Dance Company (and eldest grand-daughter of Chitrasena, the founder of the Company). It is difficult to describe in any depth my feelings about the show, without giving some history and context. It is important to note the history of the Kandyan dance form, Chitrasena’s role in preserving…

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  • 14 May, 2012
  • 2 Comments
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo,
    Features

Samhara: An interweaving of the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and the Chitrasena Dance Company

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Photo provided by Nrityagram Dance Ensemble. All copyrights reserved. Audiences in Colombo were over the weekend treated to Samhara, a collaboration between India’s Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Sri Lanka’s Chitrasena Dance Company. Groundviews caught up with Nrityagram’s lead dancer Bijayini Satpathy, the artistic director and choreographer of Nrityagram, Surupa and Chitrasena Dance Company’s choreographer, Heshma Wignaraja. We talked about the production, and the creative process that gave rise to it. The conversation focussed on rave reviews of the performance at the Joyce Theater in New York, and why they are averse to calling it a fusion of dance forms. We talk about the creative tension of modern day choreography juxtaposed with the form and tradition of Kandyan as well as Odissi dance, and how young, new audience with their own expectations are influencing each company to perfect their dance. Given the sheer technical prowess of dancers in this production, we also go discuss the problem of inspiring the next generation…

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  • 6 Apr, 2012
  • 0 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo

Between The Artist and Hugo: Nostalgia for what cinema is really about

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Two of last years’ biggest films are about film; so as cinema as we know it is undergoing a radical and rapid transition – film to digital to 3D to CGI – are we now becoming momentarily nostalgic? Are we feeling slightly panicky for what we are about to leave behind, leaping forth into the great unknown abyss that technology offers, possibility upon possibility for wonderment and stimulation? In Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film in 3D, Hugo, George Méliés, an ageing erstwhile illusionist turned film-maker (played by Ben Kingsley), says about cinema, ‘If you ever wonder where your dreams come from, look around: this is where they’re made.’ And truly, films have captured our imaginations – our wildest imaginations – since the beginning. We love the movies because they are about stories, and stories are important to us. Stories are an important medium; through which we document history, teach lessons we feel are significant, pass on knowledge and reflect on what…

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changeABLE cohesion: Dance and disability

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Groundviews caught up with Gustavo Fijalkow, one of two (the other being Gerda König) responsible for the concept behind ‘changeABLE cohesion‘, a contemporary dance performance that will kick off the Colombo International Theater Festival on 26th March. changeABLE cohesion features six dancers, two women and four men, three with and three without physical disabilities. In the interview, we ask Gustavo as to why the Theatre Festival decided to go with a production such as this for opening night, and obviously, details of the production and what the audience could expect to see and take away. More broadly, and interestingly, we speak on disability and the differently abled in performance – how their interaction is framed by the performance space and tradition, but also redefines both. Gustavo, a trained dancer for over 20 years, speaks of his frustration with traditional dance companies and their auditions process, and how markedly different DIN A 13 tanzcompany, one of the few mixed-abled dance companies…

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Sri Lankan Post-War Cinema and Reconciliation

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In any conflict environment, the audio-visual medium, in particular cinema, is utilized as a dominant tool of propaganda. In the Sri Lankan context, both the State and the LTTE have used the audio visual medium to differing degrees to propagate their ideologies, and to project themselves in a positive light. Cinema that is directly sponsored by the State invariably bears the voice of the State. Likewise, the ‘independent’ cinema, if it is in line with the State ideology, is more likely to garner accolade at State Awards ceremonies, receive promotion in the State media, and be ‘officially recommended’ for public viewing. Some cinematic works, however, are denounced by the State, especially when they tend to refute the State ideology. Cinema’s role does not end with the finale of a war. Notably, it can play a powerful role in post-war endeavours, due to its ability to reach wider audiences irrespective of age, gender, religious and racial boundaries. Cinema’s potential as an…

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Some Comments of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s ‘Suddek Oba Amathai’

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Photo courtesy Suddek Oba Amatai Facebook page It is Lakshman Piyasena, introduced to me by my friend Jayantha Dhanapala, who first told me of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s play. Piyasena urged Dhanapala and me to see a performance of Suddek Oba Amatai and kept us informed of dates when the play was due to go on the boards in Colombo. I am most grateful to both Messrs. Dhanapala and Piyasena for directing me to this excellent piece of theatre. Accordingly, a few weeks ago, I was privileged to watch a production of Udayasiri Wickremaratna’s notable play Suddek Oba Amatai (A White Man Addresses You). It was a sumptuous evening at the theatre as the play stimulates the senses at the same time as it provides the audience with much food for thought. The dramatic fare on offer entertains the theatergoer as it provokes him/her to think. The acting was very good with Nalin Pradeep Udawela (who plays the role of the sudda or…

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Interview with Alison Skilbeck: Are There More Of You?

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Alison Skilbeck will perform her critically acclaimed production Are There More Of You? in Colombo on the 13th and 14th of January at the British Council auditorium. Groundviews caught up with Alison to talk about her play and theatre in general. As noted on the Oxford Playhouse website, Alison Skilbeck was a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and played lead roles at the Playhouse in many OUDS productions including King Lear, Epicene, The Plough and the Stars, Dandy Dick, and A Winter’s Tale, and toured to the Edinburgh Fringe in Oxford revue. Skilbeck’s enormously varied stage career has taken her to the West End and all over the UK, and on tour to the USA and Europe: early on she created roles in no fewer than six Alan Ayckbourn premieres at Scarborough. On radio she was ‘Polly Perks’ in the Archers until the character’s tragic death; while television credits include Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, The Beiderbecke Affair, Dr…

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The Incomplete Thombu: A compelling interlace of architecture, drawing, memory and art

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Front cover of The Incomplete Thombu. Click here for larger image. Put simply, The Incomplete Thombu by Sri Lankan Tamil artist T. Shanaathanan is, for us, one of 2011′s most compelling publications. It is art, but in the form of a book that deftly entwines it with architecture, drawing, the memory of loss and an eerily compelling exploration of what makes a home, a home by those who have left it behind, or lost it to the war. Short excerpts in the book by those who have lost their home are always poignant, sometimes humorous but never vindictive. There is a fragile, essential humanity to these stories that with a light touch reveals so much the war took away from residents in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. There are 80 stories captured in the tome and they range in tone, identity, location and age. The drawings by the subjects themselves are very powerful depictions of loss – not just of property,…

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Titus Thotawatte: The Final Cut

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Titus Thotawatte, 1929 – 2011 Emmanuel Titus de Silva, better known as Titus Thotawatte, was the finest editor in the six decades long history of the Lankan cinema. He was also a great assimilator and remixer – a veritable ‘builder of bridges’ across cultures, media genres and generations. Titus straddled the distinctive spheres of cinema and television with a technical dexterity and creativity rarely seen in either one. Both spheres involve playing with sound and pictures, but at different levels of scale, texture and ambition. Having excelled in the craft of making movies in the 1960s and 1970s, Titus successfully switched to television in the 1980s and 1990s. There, he again blazed his own trail in Sri Lanka’s nascent television industry. As a result, my generation remembers him for his television legacy whereas my patents’ generation recall more of his cinematic accomplishments. Titus left an indelible mark in the history of moving images. The unifying thread that continued from 16mm…

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Thoughts on the play ‘Pusswedilla Part 3’

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Photo by Ima Hassen “I, Glorious Honorable Excellency Chaminda Pusswedilla is cumming to the Lynel Went stage. I now planing World Peece! Now there are too many kachal fellows in the world. So i colling oll the fellows to the “Coconut Trees” (Polgas Mandiraya) in ARSIK LAND and sorting out World Peeece. Mewa mata simple wada.. You can olso come and see me at the Lynel (still trying to see where he Went) in Septmebr 29,30 and Octobber 1 & 2. I hope that fellow Wikrama Nikamsinghe dosn’t come… oohari apaley..” Apparently, the local censor board unanimously voted to deny a public performance license for the play because it deals with Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Politicians and institutions. Consequently, the country name was changed to ‘Arsik land’. My Heartiest Congrats to the playwright, director and producer for the brilliant political satire which is well timed and appropriate. Thank you for your spunk in producing the play when society is afraid…

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Joshua Roman in Sri Lanka

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I met Joshua Roman, a TED Fellow, at TED 2011. TED audiences are very hard to please. Because of the nature of the TED Fellows, speakers and performers, the bar for any presentation is set so high that an appearance on that stage is absolutely nerve-wracking. Many in the audience pay thousands of dollars to attend TED and come from the wealthiest families in the US, corporate giants and Hollywood. In sum, they are usually those with a passion for new ideas and a penchant for music, art and culture. That Joshua received standing ovations every time he performed on stage in front of this critical audience is a singular measure of his musical prowess. As Yo-Yo Ma notes, “Occasionally I get to meet an extraordinary young musician. Such is the case with Joshua Roman. … To me, Joshua is one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st-century musician. He’s deeply grounded in a classical tradition and he is…

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In conversation with Mandhira de Saram

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Madhira de Saram‘s website describes her as follows, After completing her primary education in Sri Lanka, she was awarded a music scholarship to North London Collegiate School where she completed her secondary education. She was also a Leverhulme Scholar at the Junior Royal Academy of Music where she performed both as a violinist and pianist, also taking classes in composition and conducting. Her violin teachers have included Igor Petrushevsky, Howard Davis and Levon Chillingirian. Mandhira graduated with first class honours from the University of Oxford with a high first in performance and was the winner of the Worcester College Arts Prize for the highest result in an arts subject. Here she was the leader of several orchestras and chamber groups including Ensemble Isis which specializes in contemporary music. She also held an Oxford Philomusica Orchestra Award. Working professionally as a freelance violinist, she appears frequently as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral violinist around the UK and abroad. In Sri Lanka…

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Pecha Kucha: Celebrating creativity in Colombo

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Groundviews was invited to the press conference official launch of Pecha Kucha Colombo. It’s an interesting concept, more details of which can be read on its website here. Post-war Sri Lanka affords a space for this kind of event which was not present during the war, and this is something to be welcomed. As the website notes, “Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.” The first event (there will be four over the course of the…

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  • 26 Jun, 2011
  • 0 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo,
    Language

In conversation with Neluka Silva, Professor in English, University of Colombo

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Neluka Silva is the Head of the English Department and Professor in English, University of Colombo. Given the recent agitation amongst University staff and the general crisis over tertiary education, I first asked Neluka why she has taught at Colombo University for decades and what drives her to do this. Referring to an article by Prof. H.L. Senevirtane published in the Lanka Monthly Digest (June 2011) on restoring English as a language of teaching, I ask Neluka what, if any differences in pedagogy and the perception of the English language there was from the time she was an undergraduate student to what she teaches today in Colombo University. We talk about Neluka’s manuscript novel The Choices We Make which was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in the late 90′s and will be published later this year under the title The Iron Fence. I ask her why she changed the titled of the book and how she went about writing it. We talk…

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Watch Moving Images at Kandy International Film Festival (KIFF)

Compelling stories in high-definition

We are very pleased to announce that films from Moving Images will be part of the first Kandy International Film Festival (KIFF). Though the official schedule is still being finalised, we have been informed by the organisers that Moving Images will be screened from 4 – 6pm on Saturday, 25th at the Kandy City Centre. A moderated discussion will follow. The selection of films will be from A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka by Menika van der Poorten and Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience by Kannan Arunasalam. Please join us. Ticketing information for KIFF can be accessed here. The Kandy Film Festival will be a four-day celebration of global cinema, with a special focus on Asian film and upcoming talent, in the UNESCO world heritage city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. Against a stunning background of gardens, hilltops and cultural architecture, the Festival will showcase an exciting program of films celebrating diverse techniques, styles and themes…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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