The India-Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF) is pleased to support the staging of Saṃhära, a result of collaboration between Nrityagram Dance Ensemble from India and Sri Lanka’s Chitrasena Dance Company in Colombo on 11th, 12th and 13th May, 2012.

Saṃhära explores the meeting point between the sensuousness of Nrityagram’s Odissi and the masculine dynamism of the Chitrasena’s Kandyan dance.  Saṃhära, the result of three years of fruitful interaction between Nrityagram and Chitrasena Dance Company, has already been staged in India and the USA and has received rare reviews in both countries. The staging of Saṃhära in Sri Lanka is the result of discussions between the Chitrasena Dance Company and the India-Sri Lanka Foundation and approval of the proposal for partial assistance for this by the ISLF at its 28th meeting of Board of Directors held in February 2012. 

All dance forms in India are based on the Natya Shastra, an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts that encompasses theatre, dance and music written between 200 BCE and 200 CE.  However, regional cultural influences have created dance traditions that are unique and distinct, reflecting the cultural ethos of their region.  The Saṃhära project brings together two dance traditions - Odissi from India and Kandyan from Sri Lanka, both of which began in temple courtyards as ritual performances.  Working from the idea of the Natya Shastra as the root of all dance traditions in the region, Saṃhära explores the possibility of a new vocabulary of dance using the performance practices of India and Sri Lanka. 

Saṃhära is dedicated to celebrate Guru Vajira’s 80th birthday, and will attempt, through dance, to highlight the shared historical, cultural and civilizational contacts between India and Sri Lanka and create a new language of expression through dialogue.

The ISLF had recently supported staging of classical Sanskrit drama ‘Mrichchakatikam’ in Tamil language by Janakaraliya Theatre Arts Institute and the Swami Vipulanantha Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University of Batticaloa at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on 29 April, 2012.  ISLF also supported the educational visit of a 20-member group from various Schools in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

The India-Sri Lanka Foundation was established by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of India and Sri Lanka in 1998 in order to foster India - Sri Lanka relations through the enhancement of economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation and to promote greater understanding between the people of the two countries.

Colombo