Sunday 29 January 2012

The Sri Lanka circuit - The folk dances of Ceylan (2nd Part) - the 9th of December 2011.

(...)

The second part of the show had us gather on and around the stage, as what was to happen afterwards required the length of the whole Theatre premises. The "Gini Sisila" or the fire eater dance evoked the power and the magic spell of the fire. it reminded me of many of the circus exhibits I had seen in my childhhod, though it was a lot more spectacular because of the proximity of the sole dancer.















It was then time to watch the walking on the blazing coal ashes, which according to the written information on it is still carried out by the faithful followers of the Skanda God in the Hindu religion festivities in which those present are encouraged to get into transe, so as to be able to do it as a sign of faithfulness and piety.

It was a lot more impressive than a similar performance we had watched not long ago in Bulgaria, mainly because the surrounding atmoshphere added a touch of  mystery to the whole ritual.






















We all enjoyed the evening very much because  the folk dance performances we watched were rather "genuine" and not tourist oriented ...










No comments:

Post a Comment