Kandyan Dancing

This style was developed during the reign of Kandyan kings. Right now, the Kandyan dancing is the national dance of Sri Lanka. Typically, it impersonates the different movements of animals such as elephants, peacock. Intriguingly, this dance style depicts the iconic scenes of Ramayana stories. The Kandyan dancers wear remarkable costumes. For example – the male dancers wear skirt-like dresses in which their chest are decorated with exclusive silver regalia and stunning headgear. They also wear silver bangles on the arms and ankles.

In addition to these striking costumes, the dance performance is matched with hectic rhythms – ‘gata beraya.’ With that in mind, the Kandyan dance is performed to drumming only where the most common drum is ‘gata beraya.’ The dancers are helped to maintain the rhythmic displays by a small pair of cymbals (knows as the Thalampota).