Traditional Dance In Jeopardy

By Nirmala Kannangara – Photos by Thusitha Kumara

Unless the traditional Kandyan dancers are given due recognition, decades old Kandyan dance would perish in the years to come, warns 34 year old award winning Kandyan dancer, G.P. Samansiri alias Kondadeniye Saman.
Samansiri is a Kandyan dancer by profession and hails from the hevisi clan. The tribe’s duty was to beat hevisi for the Paththini Devalaya Kandy and though Samansiri has chose dancing from his young days, he regrets his decision after seeing  how the traditional Kandyan dancers are treated by society today.

“Kandyan dancers have been tagged as a group that cannot utter a word of English and wherever we go we get step motherly treatment. Even at state functions when we were invited together with the so called ‘modern’ dancing troupes in Colombo, we get the least facilities whereas the Colombo based dance troupes get all the comforts and recognition,” complained Samansiri.

According to Samansiri, the modern dance troupes have already destroyed traditional Kandyan dance and he was disappointed that the Cultural Affairs Ministry has not taken action against those who are responsible for it. Samansiri is a Presidential Award winning dancer for seven consecutive years since 2003 and is a graduate from the University of Visual & Performing Arts Colombo. He works as the dancing instructor at Ranabima Royal College Kandy.

“Since I am so committed to traditional Kandyan dancing, I formed a 40 member dancing troupe of my own and we take part in the annual Esala Pageant in Kandy. It is disheartening to note as to how the perahera dancers are treated. They were not given proper meals and even a very small fee of Rs. 3000 for the 10 day pageant. How could these dancers survive unless they perform at private occasions? The costume is so costly and it is up to the Temple of the Tooth and the Diyawadana Nilame to look after those who perform at the perahera,” claimed Samansiri.