Showcasing the cultural colours of Sri Lanka

They left everybody stunned. Turning, twirling, swaying and skipping to the beats of “Ceylon’s popular drums,” the boys and girls from Sri Lankan army’s cultural troupe took the Doha audience through the island nation’s rich culture and history stretched over centuries.  
Showcasing a piece of culture from the “pearl of Arabian sea” in dance and song, members of Sri Lankan Army Band and Cultural Troupe delivered an enthralling performance to a packed house at Katara Drama Theatre on their first ever trip to town.
A multicultural audience witnessed dancers in colourful costumes present traditional dances attached with local Sri Lankan cultural ceremonies, rituals and customs. Some came from different parts of the country exhibiting its cultural diversity.
You could see tea picking girls swirling and spinning to the tunes of traditional musical instruments in their colourful old-fashioned skirts with hay-baskets on their backs. The audience also witnessed the grandeur of king’s court from ancient Ceylon and warriors celebrating victories, dancing to the tunes of striking swords.
“This cultural troupe is actually under the army bands and performing arts [wing] of the Sri Lankan army. It is almost half a century old and is one of a kind. All the performers are from the army,” Major General Mihindu Kulasuriya, Regimental Commander Sri Lanka Army Bands and Performing Arts, told Community in a chat after the show.
He heads all the army bands. “It was great opportunity to come here as a [relatively] big group. Because if the group is small, we cannot really perform many of the dances that we displayed here tonight,” he added. Even so, this group of more than 20 performers was still considerably a very small group.
Traditionally, the army cultural troupe’s performances comprise hundreds of dancers, musicians and mask-wearing performers and they display a wide array of stunts and dances.
The show was held in the presence of high-profile diplomats and a large audience. The Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Qatar Prof Dr W M Karunadasa, in his speech, praised the bilateral ties between Qatar and Sri Lanka. “The countries enjoy friendly and brotherly relations in all fields especially the cultural field,” the ambassador told the audience.
“Both countries have shown keenness to adopt the cultural approach as a means to achieve co-operation and interaction between the two cultures in both countries,” he added.
The Sri Lankan ambassador also gifted a memorial shield to the General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation Katara, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, and expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Ibrahim Yousif Fakhroo, Director of the Department of Protocol, and Faleh al-Hajri, the Head of the Cultural Research and Studies Department of the Ministry of Culture and Sports for personally attending the show.
The dances at Katara Cultural Village performance were directed by three commissioned officers of the Sri Lankan army. One of them, Captain Prashant, himself appeared with his violin during the performance by the drums orchestra and facilitated their ‘duels.’
“We performed three types of dances representing up country, low country and the centre, besides a mask dance. We also performed a royalty dance depicting the royal customs and the skills and passions of the warriors in the council of the king,” said the commander.
It was not just about the Sri Lankan culture. The troupe also showcased multiculturalism by performing dances from other cultures and genres.
“We wanted to show the talent of our guys — that they cannot only do the cultural dances but other forms of dances as well. We do all types of dances from English to Latin and Bollywood and Hollywood,” the regimental commander of the band explained.
The army bands perform to public in Sri Lanka. The troupe is almost always busy, performing mostly for army. Every month, they have some 20-30 performances and the numbers shoots up in the auspicious months with the coming of the wedding season, he adds.
In Sri Lanka, they have the facilities and resources to stage huge performances, with 400 or more dancers, and more than 70 musicians in the orchestra and their stuntmen. All the dancers are properly trained in the academies.
“We admit to the band people who are professionally trained with diplomas in the art form. You cannot just perform these up country and low country forms of dances without proper training. They are not as easy as they look,” explained the commander.
All the performers in the troupe also have to attend their regular army training, besides practising their dance and music. It is to keep them fit and also to remind them that they are soldiers. “They go through the army drills and other training. It is to make them realise that they are soldiers after all,” said the commander.
The troupe has stage performances in different festivals in Sri Lanka and some in other countries as well. They have also competed in local and international music competitions, winning multiple laurels. The commander says there are more than 70 mask dances, all of which the band performs.
“We have the regimental bands as well. Since we are in the army we do not have any restrictions so we can perform stunts. We perform fire dances and then the bodybuilders from the army feature in the royalty dances,” he added.
In Katara, more than 20 performers took the centre stage for over two hours presenting a stunning musical display and reflecting the rich cultural diversity of Sri Lanka.
The ‘Tea Dance’ they staged is usually performed during the tea harvesting season and festivals in a country that produces some of the world’s best tea brands. The performers re-enacted a scene from old times during colonial rule when women wearing traditional clothes would pick tea leaves and collect them in the baskets on their backs. From many ceremonies associated with tea in Sri Lanka, dance celebrations are one of them. The background music also included purely the local traditional musical instruments.
The multicultural performances from the troupe also included dances inspired by rich culture of countries like Egypt, Spain, India and others. The Sri Lankan troupe was founded decades ago and has performed in many countries across the world such as Australia, the US, France, Italy, the UK, China, Malaysia and Thailand.