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40 years La-Ceylonians
Despite several dozens of changes in membership, Noel Ranasinghe has steered his ship through stormy seas to safety, to complete a memorable milestone in his illustrious music career.

This year will mark the 40th year of His "La-Ceylonians", the group which triggered a revolution in our music scene. Noel hopes to celebrate this great event with a bash soon, if he gets a proper sponsorship. Also he wants to do a feature his group over TV - so that all our Sri Lankans could be able to watch the show.

Photographic Exhibition on Indian Rukmini Devi
A photographic Exhibition on Rukmini Devi will be held at the Indian Cultural Centre from February 1 to 6.

The photographic exhibition includes the historical details on Bharathanatyam, Rukmini Devi and Kalakshetra - an organisation built by her to promote inter-disciplinary studies in dance, music, education and crafts.

Rukmini Devi not only revived and refined the Sadir dance but also re-named it as Bharatanatyam and re-presented it with the mediations of modern lights, designer costumes and proscenium theatre. She was instrumental in adding Bhakti elements to dance and marrying dance to Tamil literature. She introduced dance ballets (26 in all) which were hitherto unknown. Her Kalakshetra was both traditional and modern inasmuch as it was Gurukul teaching for dance and music while for other subjects, it was Montessori system of education. She was also a votary for combining art with education.

The exhibition consists of about 100 photographs taken by Conrad Woldring and Nachiappan in the 1950s. The mounted photographs are divided into five themes showing the evolution of Rukmini Devi and Kalkshetra. It is in the nature of a tribute to the memory of the doyen of Bharatnatyam in her centenary year (2003). In addition, the exhibition would include books, periodicals, panels, Kalakshetra sarees, dancing bells etc.

The exhibition has already travelled from Chennai to New Delhi, Kolkata, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 2002. It opens in Colombo and is scheduled to travel to Kandy and Jaffna in February 2003. In April, it is scheduled at Nehru Centre, London. In addition, it has been invited to Tokyo and Dhaka in 2003.

In addition to the photographic exhibition, there would also be a dance recital and presentation of Birds and the Banyan Tree, a rendition in the dance form explaining the history of Rukmini Devi and Kalakshetra.

This programme comes alive in collaboration with India-Sri Lanka Foundation and the Indian High Commission, Sri Lanka, the Centre for Contemporary Culture.

LVI : New satellite TV
Lanka Vision International (Pvt) Ltd., is the newest satellite television station in Sri Lanka.

LVI is authorized to transmit TV programmes on Globecast S.r.I. Italiana (French Telecom Division) through their satellite telecast programmes to Europe, Africa and the Middle East to explore Sri Lanka and its Culture, Traditional Dances, History, Buddhism and Buddhist Peraheras.

This station is now ready to undertake the transmission of TV programmes to explore Sri Lanka to the Western and Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East through satellite.

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