Words: Amritha Hapuarachchi and Photographs: Arantha Sirimanne
Born to dance, Rangi Fernando hails from a musical family. Her father is famed musician Chandimal Fernando and she grew up with music around her. It was very natural for Rangi and her sister Rukshi to start dancing from a very young age of 6. Rangi excelled academically and obtained a degree in Accounting and Finance and a Diploma in Business. However it is dancing that remains her first love.
Rangi teamed up with Sri Lanka’s darling songbird Yohani to choreograph a dance routine for Yohani’s hit ‘Manike Mage Hithe’. Yohani herself starred in the video and it was the first time a musician was featured in a dancer’s video. Since then, Rangi and Yohani have been performing for live events. They have now become close friends and her work has motivated Rangi to push her limits.
What or who inspired you to dance? How does it make you feel?
When I got my corporate job [at MAS], working at MAS was actually something I liked and the time there actually gave me the ability to fuel my passion and I had very supportive mentors. Over the years, what dance meant to me also changed. It became my safe place or rather where I went to feel most like myself. I felt that over the years, while working in a corporate environment I felt I was being forced into a box and loosing half of my identity. To overcome this I started dancing more for myself and less for others. Dancing instead of being a performance became a meditative experience. I then felt a total connect with body, mind and emotion.
The more I did this, the more free I felt and my confidence, self esteem, etc became better not just in dance but in life. When I move I blur the boundaries of the categories of dance, and move with however I feel in that moment; it’s my journey. I started Sync And Move, a platform and a method through which
I share this feeling of freedom of movement with as many as possible.
What inspires you to keep dancing?
If you were to ask me this question a year ago my answer would have been based on myself as dance is what gives me the ability to dream, it gives me purpose. What inspires me to keep dancing right now are all my students I have gained over the last two years. Seeing their smiles, their joy and confidence and them becoming comfortable in their own skin, putting themselves in new experiences and moving so freely in turn inspires me to dance. It’s my duty and my purpose.
What qualifications do you have in dance?
I did my foundation in Laban Bartenieff movement analysis, I got trained in the Gaga movement language, completed some modules in the somatic movement educator programme and finally I am now following my Masters of Arts in dance movement therapy in Germany. Additionally, I am a mindfulness and meditation coach and a qualified yoga instructor.
What is something people may be surprised to know about you?
Even though my career requires me to put myself in front of many people, to talk, to do shoots and be in front of cameras, I’m actually quite an introvert so it’s always like I make mental notes to get into this other character when I need to become the dancer Rangi.
Other than dancing, what are you interested in?
I love to write and it’s something I have continued to do. I write about my experiences and the connects I make from movement to life. I have so many notebooks I have categorized to organize my writing. It’s almost become a problem as I can’t carry them around all the time now. I have many unpublished blog articles and I journal as a habit. It’s my other form of expression.
If you were not dancing, what would you be doing today?
I think I would have stayed in my corporate job because one side of my personality did thoroughly enjoy it and I may have continued to do some form of competitive sport which tested my level of fitness.
