Jan. 2016

University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies' Second Season

Colonizers labeled ritual dance of Sri Lanka as “devil dance”. Subsequently, it was commodified and brought to Europe as part of “colonial exhibition”. Colonial exhibitions exposed Sri Lankan dancers as exotic creatures along with animals brought from different parts of the world. This piece tries to capture some oppressions that Sri Lankans and other colonized nations had gone through. The piece proposes “mindfulness” for co-existence of humans, while acknowledging personal and cultural histories of oppressive events in the past.

Choreography by Sudesh Mantillake

Projections by Nitsan Scharf

Lighting by Christopher Wong