Tradition? To Hell With It!

I was one of the many [somewhat sad] people who stayed up till late to watch the Sirasa Dancing Star final last night. Its not cause I'm an ardent subscriber of Sirasa, just that I was bored and the dancing was entertaining. I thought the artistes did a good job of keeping to the beat, looking graceful and not looking like they were trampling mud during their performances. Personally, I think the other actresses (not the finalists) have a tendency to over gesture with their limbs and features in order to copy their Indian counterparts. Sometimes it comes off as a bit OTT.

Anyhow, quite late in the show, the lights dimmed, and out came three Kandyan dancers decked out in all their regalia with their accompanying drummers.

'Oh how nice, they've decided to incorporate some culture as well' I thought to myself.

I thought it brought the show some well roundness when they showcase the talents of the artistes for western, sri lankan and indian music and then do a professional performance of traditional dancers.

What a shock! They made the dancers strut their stuff to a bass filled, RnB beat[ed], shrilly song. You couldn't hear the natural drums. The dancers were not in synchrony half the time. And to be honest, I thought they looked a bit lost. The beat they were dancing to was, I'm pretty sure, not a part of traditional bera pada at all. Sirasa then went on to leave no stone unturned and brought out low country and Sabaragamuwa dancers. Again, they performed age old dances to this ridiculous music.

I understand how Sirasa and whoever choreographed that atrocious segment wanted to bring traditional dancing to the future HOWEVER, I think somethings should be left as they are. If the dance was carried out to its original manner, it would have been more enjoyable.

Ironically, one of the types of dancers brought out usually dance at devol madu or thovils, by the look of it through the camera lens, the staged looked like a right thovil at that moment. The yak vesmuhunu [devil masked] fellows were standing there trying to get the beat, the kandyan dancers at the edge trying to do their thing, the drummers who couldn't be heard by us at home, the low country fellows doing that wonderful turn flip dance in the middle. In the background we had all the lights flashing and that nonsense song playing.

Surely, some taste people?