- Sync and Move Founder Rangi Fernando on her recent show Spotlight and what the future holds
By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
When talking about dance in Sri Lanka, Rangi Fernando’s name is one that springs to mind. She formed Sync and Move in 2018, through which Fernando offers personal, group, and corporate guided movement sessions. On 24 September, she held the event Spotlight at Royal MAS Arena, Colombo, sharing the spotlight with 50 dancers.
Fernando’s wish to share how she felt in terms of movement with as many people as possible came to fruition through Sync and Move, and its programmes like Masterclass, Prathihari, and Intensive help participants explore movement in different ways.
“Spotlight, to me, was an extension to all that, because I wanted to give the girls an audience,” she said, explaining that while the girls perform and find their magic in the Masterclass or Intensive, Fernando also wanted to give them an audience in order to complete the circle.
Sharing the spotlight
The show allowed Fernando to share the spotlight with Sync and Move participants, whom Fernando fondly refers to as “the girls”. She said that the Masterclasses started with the video she did for Prathihari by Supun Perera, featuring Senanga Dissanayake, where she performed a routine with a spotlight on her. With the Masterclass, held in different parts of the island, as well as India and Singapore, about 400 girls learned the routine.
At the end of each Masterclass, the performers form a V, with Fernando at the front. “I have this picture in my head where all of the girls actually wear the same costume and we perform the dance,” she said, giving us an idea of how she reached the decision to hold Spotlight.
Despite it being a show with a large number of performers and various routines, Spotlight was initially supposed to be a very small show with 20 dancers and a 100-person audience. However, Fernando said she booked the venue and then sent a message to the girls saying she wants to do this for them as a gift for all they have done for her, and before she knew it, 55 performers had agreed to participate.
“None of them are professionally trained dancers, they all have different careers, are from different age groups, social backgrounds, and parts of the country, and are going through different things in life. They were actually willing to put themselves out there and grab those two to three minutes on stage. And who am I to say no to any of those girls who want to perform? To stand in their way of going on stage?”
Managing 55 performers wasn’t easy, but Fernando said she was able to focus her attention on tasks that needed it because four performers came forward, offering their help and essentially appointing themselves as leaders.
“They just took on my weight. I didn’t even need to delegate,” she said, adding that the four performers – Bhagya Chandrasiri, Nilshani Gunasekara, Dulani Rathnayake, and Sashenka Rajapakse – were like a blessing. Fernando said that, similarly, her backstage crew, to the ones that handled the lights to the production to the sound, and all those who supported her with costume changes, were all people who have been a vital part of her journey in some way or the other.
Paying tribute
Through the show, Fernando was also paying tribute to everyone who has been part of her journey, and she said the audience was filled with people who have contributed to her journey and are the reason for her being there; the key people being her parents, for whom she dedicated a song at the show, and even had them come on stage.
“What I told the girls about the audience was that they had their own stories for being there, they are also going through different tough avenues of life, they might be stressed, and they might be struggling with something. And what I told the girls was that this was our chance to at least relieve their stress for 1½ hours, to give them some sort of escape, to give them a form of lightness and joy for life.”
Fernando added: “So I just wanted to fill the room with so much joy and celebration that everyone felt it. And funnily enough we got a few messages from the audience saying that was the shortest 1½ hours of their life and just seeing those messages was just, this is it. This is enough.”
Response
The response to Spotlight has been overwhelming, immense, and amazing, Fernando said, adding that she never expected it, since it was organised within just two weeks. In terms of what Spotlight can evolve into, Fernando said she has given it some thought and definitely knows it isn’t going to be the only show.
She also wants to replicate it in different parts of the country and maybe even different parts of the world.
“Spotlight is an accumulation of a journey. It’s a showcase of a journey; a celebration of a journey and a new beginning and that was not just for me, but for each girl,” Fernando said, adding that she gives the performers tools, which they then use while dancing and even in life.
What was challenging to her during Spotlight was to keep reminding herself of the values of Sync and Move. “When you are putting on a show, sometimes you tend to lose sight of that, you know? When you are putting on a show, you are thinking ‘oh, what will the audience think? What will they take out of it?’ so I had to keep going back to the drawing board.”
Fernando added: “I think with each Spotlight that we do, I will have to keep doing that because that essence of it can’t get diluted.”
Beginning a new chapter
Spotlight is especially important to Fernando because she is embarking on a new chapter of her life soon, by moving to Germany. All her classes will be held online for the time being, but Fernando said she plans on travelling back and forth as much as possible. And while she will still hold her regular classes, she is also thinking of taking on more personal classes.
Leaving the girls is tough, Fernando said, as the classes, as well as Spotlight, have made her see just how much she can give them. However, this new chapter will help her give them even more and reach more people, as she will be studying dance movement therapy, which will enable her to give targeted treatment.
“I think it is important for me to go and do that. It’s almost my duty. It’s bigger than me, and for me to serve my purpose, it’s something that I have to do. So what I feel is irrelevant, the fact that I’m finding it a challenge to move and do everything from scratch there while I have everything here. I’m uprooting that and relocating elsewhere to do this, because I know I need to serve my purpose.”
