Most tourists’ and many scholars' first introduction to Kandyan dance usually takes place either at the annual Asala perahera festival or at nightly shows at places such as the Young Men's Buddhist Association in the central city of Kandy. These performances portray Kandyan dance as expressions of traditional Sinhala culture and as symbols of Sri Lanka. In her fascinating “historical ethnography of Kandyan dance,” Susan A. Reed examines “how a local ritual-based dance form was transformed into an ethnic and national symbol and the consequences this transformation had from the community of traditional dancers as well as for new groups of performers, especially women” (p. 4). This very readable book will have great appeal not only for scholars of dance, Sri Lanka, and folk Buddhism, but also for those who are interested in the intersection of cultural heritage and nationalism. Furthermore, her inclusion of a nearly two-hour DVD provides another layer of ethnography, allowing the reader to view nearly all of the dances that she discusses.
Reed traces the history of Kandyan dance from its roots in the Sinhala Buddhist ritual Kohomba Kankariya, to its reconfiguration as a national dance in the early twentieth century, to its modern position as a subject taught in government schools. In the process, she shows how a seemingly dying ritual was revived through government sponsorship and support, which significantly changed its meanings. The central theme of Kohomba Kankariya is Sinhala political legitimacy over island, rooted in the Sinhala origin myth of Vijaya and Kuveni, making it well suited for nationalist transformation. Unlike other art forms in contemporary Sri Lanka that have private ticket-buying support, Kandyan dance is supported almost entirely by the government, except for tourist performances. The state became heavily involved after 1956, after which Sinhala culture was equated with national culture, and vice versa. This “national dance” then became something to be taught, maintained, packaged, and staged as cultural tradition and heritage.
Reed pays special attention to the role of class, caste, and gender in dance in her analysis from the perspective of nonelites. Until the 1980s, Kandyan dance was mainly the practice of low-caste berava males, but is now mostly practiced by upper-caste females. Reed shows how making the dance “respectable,” the formalization of dance education, and increasing berava caste consciousness contributed to the simultaneous elevation and marginalization of berava dancers and drummers. These processes of transforming the dance from caste-based ritual to staged entertainment also facilitated the gradual transformation of Kandyan dance into a predominately feminine practice. Ironically, this also allowed Kohombo Kankariya to escape its projected demise, as it became symbolic of the Sinhala nation.
This ethnography is based on several periods of fieldwork, from 1984 to 2000, which includes the most violent episodes of Sri Lanka's civil war. Reed discusses how the war limited her research, yet she does not dwell on it. Instead, she provides valuable analysis of the political and cultural ideologies that were the springboard for ethnic violence. In addition, she analyzes colonial-era archival documents, publications, and images to support her conclusion that Kandyan dance was performed at secular events decades earlier than previously thought.
The book's early chapters will be of more interest to scholars of Sinhala culture and Theravada Buddhism, as they focus more on myths and rituals. The later chapters will have more appeal to anthropologists, as they focus on the interplay of ethnic nationalism with class, caste, and gender. Reed does not overly rely on theory and jargon in this endeavor, but inductively builds her arguments from a wealth of archival and ethnographic evidence. Her writing is very accessible to nonspecialists in dance or Sri Lanka, and could easily be read by advanced undergraduates. My only major criticism is that she includes too many section headings, often after just one or two paragraphs, which breaks up the narrative and renders it overly episodic, rather than presenting a cohesive argument.
Accompanying Reed's vivid descriptions of dancers' costumes and movements, the one-hour, fifty-minute DVD is divided into three parts, with excellent, unobtrusive narration by Reed. In the two-and-a-half minute introduction, Reed gives an overview of the book's ideas while the camera pans over still images. A fifty-eight-minute digest of a Kohomba Kankariya performance from July 1988 is next, in which one can see many of the dances and dancers that Reed discusses. She provides subtle narration, describing the set up of the ritual space and the roles of various participants. The third part contains forty-seven minutes of Kandyan dance, including stage dances, tourist performances, rehearsals, and training exercises, which are introduced with descriptive titles. The picture and sound quality are very good, though not up to contemporary digital standards. All scenes are directly accessible, easily allowing the DVD to be shown in a classroom without the book, but of course students would benefit greatly from both.
