Leading dancers of the Chitrasena Dance Foundation Thaji and Sanduni and drummer Waruna talk of their experience of touring the US as part of the Samhara dance production
Performing at the Met was the most prestigious moment for young Sri Lankan dancers Thaji Dias and Sanduni Sulochani and Waruna Sri Hemachandra of the Chitrasena Vajira Dance Foundation. “New York is more like a world hub for dance. To have world famous dancers and choreographers like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris in the audience with dance critics was a privilege indeed,” Thaji said adding that Kandyan dance was a novel experience to some in the audience and they were all mesmerized by the leaps and turns, giving the dancers a stand- ing ovation for every performance.
It was two perfectly harmonized Eastern dance traditions, carefully curated to bring the utmost essence of the two forms, as the Samhara dance production took the stage at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) leaving the New York audience awe struck. In fact this was the reception the dancers received for ‘Samhara’ presented by the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in collaboration with the Chitrasena Dance Company, throughout their tour of the United States.
The Samhara Fall 2018 US Tour took place from September 18 to October 29 with 13 performances in eight venues. Samhara was principally curated and conceptualized by Surupa Sen, acclaimed Odissi dancer, Artistic Director and choreographer at the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble.
Samhara, carrying the mean- ings of collection and compilation as in a braid woven together, is a cross-cultural collaboration between the Odissi dance tradition from India and Kandyan dance from Sri Lanka. One of the oldest dance traditions in the world, Odissi was originally a sacred ritual dedicated to the gods. It relates tales of mythology and legend while speaking of love and union between human and divine creating magic and spirituality on stage. Kandyan dance, the ritual-dance tradition of Sri Lanka was originally performed by dancers from a specific caste and aligned to the Temple of the Tooth.
‘Samhara’ has previously toured India, USA and Singapore, 2017 to London, the two dance companies the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Chitrasena Dance Company sharing a long friendship, knowledge and passion for dance. “We performed two collaborative pieces, Kandyan and Odissi while the other two were pure Odissi from a total of four performances. The first collaboration was an invocation celebrat-