Miranda Hemalatha Kala Ashramaya

 Miranda Hemalatha Kala Ashrmaya has a history of fifty one years, started in 1957 with three children at Panadura, Kalutara district in the Western Provience of Sri Lanka. In 1958, the first dance drama of Ms. Miranda Hemalatha was presented by this institute called “Vasantha Thilaka”. Since then this institute has been presenting a number of dance programmes with a lot of innovations and experiments in the field of traditional and creative dances directed and choreographed by Ms. Miranda Hemalatha. “Ranga Dhara”, “Ranga leela”, “Nupura Rawaya”, ”Sancharie”, “Narthana Rekha”, “Gemi Mihira”,  “Shastrie”, “Geethangee”, etc were highly commended by the critics.

The dance dramas choreographed and directed by Miranda Hemalatha “She”, “Thanha Asha”, “Deewarie Geethaya”, "Swarnathilaka", “Sigiri Sihinaya” and “Naganandaya” were also presented by this institute.

Thousands of students have been given a very fruitful education on traditional and classical dances of Sri Lanka and India by the institute.

Dancing is not the only subject the students study in this institute. They do music, dance, drama and art. In addition, it is compulsory for all students to learn about the cultural history of Sri Lanka in detail and other countries in brief. They are given a special awareness about the appreciation of performing arts and visual arts in relation to Sri Lanka and other countries.They are encouraged to meet the traditional artists for direct information about their experiences.

The student’s interests are diverted to develop their creative thinking and creativity.

The institute has a special project to develop the differently able children with more attention to children who suffer from Down Syndrome. This project was started in 2001 and the outcome of the experiment was shown in 2004 by presenting two boys Yasas and Uditha Kumara in the dance performance “Diriya Nartana” which created sensations in the country. Today we have 50 students who suffer from down syndrome working for a better future.

The institute had the courage to ordain 45 girls who completed the course of traditional Kandyan dance, in the traditional Ves costume which was prohibited by the traditional artistes. Today, even the universities are following the footpath of Miranda Hemalatha, the teacher who led this group. It is indeed a historic event for the institute in 2001.

In June of 2008, guru Miranda Hemalatha presented her hundredth student excelled in Bharatha Natya through the institute - again creating history in the field of dance in Sri Lanka. It was a unique event as she had creographed and composed thirteen items starting from “Mallari to Slokam" selecting music compossisions from the 18th century up to today.

The students who graduated from this institute are already serving in most parts of the world - England, America, Canada, Australia, Japan and many other countries.

At present, there are more than 200 students studying classical and traditional arts of Sri Lanka and India inspite of the fact that the electronic media is catering more for pop arts with very little emphsis on classical and traditional arts.

Vocational Training Institute for Down's Syndrome children will start in June 2010

For more details contact:
Tel/Fax: +94 112 842050
E-mail: mhka@sltnet.lk

Narthana Reka

Danangi's second solo performance
Danangi 12 year old girl suffering from Donwn's Syndrome held her 2nd solo performance on 21 February 2010.

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