In step with ballet, modern, hip hop and tap

Dance allows people to discover, explore and develop their natural instincts for movement, enabling the development not only of their motor skills but also their mental and emotional personalities.

For the students of the Dance Work Centre, dance has also allowed them to achieve much more. Their classes with Kanthi Ranchigoda have enabled them to express themselves, have fun with friends, keep fit and healthy, besides learning new styles of dancing such as ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop and tap.

In ‘Flashback’ to be held at the Lionel Wendt on December 8, 9 and 10 at 7.15 p.m., 150 students of the versatile and accomplished teacher will perform 28 dances in a two-hour show. “It is a celebration of 25 years of teaching dance,” says Ms. Ranchigoda.

The first-half of the programme will feature the four seasons and different times of the day, with the dancers in spectacular costumes portraying a montage of images in the form of creatures or elements symbolic of that time frame. While the stunning Egyptian dancers, fireflies, snakes and stars signify the night, autumn leaves and the wind denote autumn.

Thereafter, the raindrops, thunder and lightning appear in sequence to represent the monsoon while the butterflies and flowers and rainbow and sun represent spring and summer.

Ms. Ranchigoda looks back at the past 2 ½ decades with a sense of fulfilment. “I see an improvement each year in my students and the shows that we present. It gives me great satisfaction,” she says. The show apparently means a lot to her and her students. “They have been working hard despite their studies.”

But her long journey has had its share of ups and downs. For the present generation that has grown up in a culture of war characterised by travel restrictions, curfews, constant security checks and bomb scares, according to Ms. Ranchigoda, “Dance has enabled them to enter a different world – a world of music and dance, leaving aside their worries”.

This teacher shares a good camaraderie with her students. “Anything you do – do it well,” she advises them, whilst instilling in them the need for discipline and dedication. A few of her students have gone on to Australia and England to pursue careers in dance.

To date the Dance Work Centre has participated in all the festivals organised by the British Festival of Dance.

For older women, Ms. Ranchigoda conducts aerobic classes, morning and evening, being the first in the country to have started 25 years ago.

She thinks it vital to keep fit and works out routines with plenty of stretching and simple exercises.

Tickets for Flashback are available at Ms. Ranchigoda’s dance studio at 70A, Lauries Road, Colombo 4. Proceeds from the show will go to the Society for the Upliftment and Rehabilitation of Leprosy Patients.