A Sinhala-language survey of Sri Lankan dance by Prof Mudiyanse Disanayaka, published in Colombo by Godage and carrying the parallel English title The Art of Sinhalese Dance. The text throughout is Sinhala, so this is a book for readers of the language; buyers who do not read Sinhala should know that before ordering. It is illustrated with colour photographs.
The book works through the island's main dance traditions in turn. The Up-country (Udarata) and Low-country (Pahatarata) schools are both covered, as are the Sabaragamu traditions. Beyond these, Disanayaka treats the ritual and exorcistic dance forms, and the folk theatre that sits alongside them — Sokari, Kolam and Nadagam. Separate attention goes to dance dress and ornaments, to the history of the Dalada Perahera, and to the newer dance forms that developed in the modern period.
That range is what distinguishes it from a book on a single school. Readers get the classical court and temple lineages, the village and ritual repertoire, and the masked and sung theatre forms in one volume, with the costume and ornament tradition described rather than assumed. The Perahera material connects the dance forms to the procession in which many Sri Lankans first encounter them.
Mudiyanse Disanayaka writes as an academic, and the book has had a long life in Sri Lanka: first issued in the early nineties, it has been reprinted repeatedly over the decades since, which suggests steady use by students, teachers and dancers rather than a single season of interest.
It will suit Sinhala readers studying performing arts, dance students and teachers working within the traditional schools, and anyone in the diaspora who wants a reference on the forms in the language they were taught in. The colour plates make it usable alongside the text for identifying costume, mask and ornament. Godage International Publishers is an established Colombo house issuing titles in Sinhala and English across academic and general subjects.
- Author: Prof Mudiyanse Disanayaka
- Publisher: Godage International Publishers
- Language: Sinhala
- Pages: 342
- ISBN: 9789552008719
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