Kandayan Dancing is one of the three dance forms from Sri Lanka. We went to watch it at the Kandyan Art Association & Cultural Centre which is next to the Temple of the Tooth and on the shores of the Kandy Lake. The dancing could have been better but it is worth going to see. At the end of the performance there was a fie dance which is done as a devotion to a god.
Kandyan Dancers
As mentioned above, Kandyan Dance is one of the three dance forms in Sri Lanka and as per multiple sources is now considered to be the national dance of Sri Lanka. As per the Lonely Planet:
This dance form flourished under the Kandyan Kings and when Busshist moks admitted it to temple courtyards, and it became an essential part of the Kandy Esala Perahera.
Now considered Sri Lanka's national dance, there are five types of Kandyan dance: pantheru, named after a tambourine-like instrument used to accompany dances after victory in war; uddeki, involving the dancer singing and drumming; naiyaki, a graceful dance performed at the lighting of lamps before festivals; ves, the most sacred and most frequently seen dance, particularly in the Kandy perahera; and vannamas, inspired by nature and deities.
The dances are shown in the video below. As you can see it is slightly uninspired and the dancers are just going through the motions and some parts are not even properly synchronized, but then it was only NTD125 per person, so what could we expect. Still, it was good to see.
The fire dance wasn't bad either but it was a little short and we were expecting a bit more.
Would love to know your thoughts on the dancing? Would be curious to know.
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