Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Free concert, Serbian Club
Virtuoso mentors local drummers
Six South Australian percussionists will immerse themselves in three days of intensive workshops in Coober Pedy this week with one of the greatest living exponents of Sri Lankan Kandyan dance following WOMADelaide.
The drummers selected for this chance-of-a-lifetime masterclass are Justin Francis of Port Lincoln, Neil Smith, Yoummna Andary and ten-year-old Youssef Hassan of Berri, Thomas Darmody of Kapunda and Anna Beech of Port Augusta.
Their mentor, Ravibandu Vidyapathy is a classical Kandyan dancer, percussionist and renowned choreographer presenting both traditional and contemporary percussion and dance from Sri Lanka.
For anyone in Coober Pedy wanting a taste of Womadelaide, Ravibandu and his ensemble of five musicans are playing a FREE SHOW at the Serbian Club in Coober Pedy at 7pm on Thursday 16 March.
Ravi pursued a rigorous academic training in his youth before setting up his own Dance Company and school in 1984 and has embraced and reinterpreted all number of theatrical and dance traditions from the Greek classics to Shakespeare, the Hindi epics and the minimalist theatre traditions of Japan.
He is a virtuoso percussionist who has studied under gurus of traditional music like Pilyasara Shilpadhipathi and Punchiguru and is the director of the Sri Lanka National Dance Troupe.
In recent choreographed pieces he has touched on the themes of war and ethnic conflict in his own country through intricate dance pieces.
These masterclasses and free concert are the result of a collaboration between Country Arts SA, Arts Projects Australia and Womadelaide and funded through the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
Six South Australian percussionists will immerse themselves in three days of intensive workshops in Coober Pedy this week with one of the greatest living exponents of Sri Lankan Kandyan dance following WOMADelaide.
The drummers selected for this chance-of-a-lifetime masterclass are Justin Francis of Port Lincoln, Neil Smith, Yoummna Andary and ten-year-old Youssef Hassan of Berri, Thomas Darmody of Kapunda and Anna Beech of Port Augusta.
Their mentor, Ravibandu Vidyapathy is a classical Kandyan dancer, percussionist and renowned choreographer presenting both traditional and contemporary percussion and dance from Sri Lanka.
For anyone in Coober Pedy wanting a taste of Womadelaide, Ravibandu and his ensemble of five musicans are playing a FREE SHOW at the Serbian Club in Coober Pedy at 7pm on Thursday 16 March.
Ravi pursued a rigorous academic training in his youth before setting up his own Dance Company and school in 1984 and has embraced and reinterpreted all number of theatrical and dance traditions from the Greek classics to Shakespeare, the Hindi epics and the minimalist theatre traditions of Japan.
He is a virtuoso percussionist who has studied under gurus of traditional music like Pilyasara Shilpadhipathi and Punchiguru and is the director of the Sri Lanka National Dance Troupe.
In recent choreographed pieces he has touched on the themes of war and ethnic conflict in his own country through intricate dance pieces.
These masterclasses and free concert are the result of a collaboration between Country Arts SA, Arts Projects Australia and Womadelaide and funded through the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
# posted by Gazza @ 3:28 PM 
