This Saturday, there will be dancing, youthful beats and cultural clothing in the Great Hall for Sri Lankan Night: Rangana Thaala 2013, presented by the ISU Sri Lankan Student Organization.

The event is free and will include dance and music representing the many facets of Sri Lankan cultural heritage. It is an opportunity for ISU students as well as the Ames community to experience different aspects of the Sri Lankan culture including the history, languages, and natural wonders of the island.

“First and foremost, this event is for anyone who enjoys performing arts,” said Hansini Munasinghe, senior in sociology and secretary for the club. “We will showcase a variety of dances including pure classical Kandyan, folk, hindu ritual performance, indigenous performance, modern hip hop inspired dance and many more.”

Munasinghe said that the club wants the diversity of the island to shine through in the different performances throughout the night and hopes the audience will take that message home with them.

“We are a small island (half the size of Iowa) that is home to more than 20 million people of four main religions and many different ethnicities,” Munasinghe said. “In our performances, especially in the fashion show, we have tried to embrace this diversity.”

The event opens with a worship dance called a “pooja,” followed by a traditional Kandyan dance stemming from an ancient purification ritual of the hill country of Sri Lanka. This dance will be performed by ISU students with extensive experience in dance and a familiarity with the culture.

Each of these dances will have elaborate costumes that give a sense of the Sri Lankan fashion; much of the clothing worn is considered sacred.

The next several dances will feature a variety of instruments, but will focus on the drums and the beats of the native land.

A modern dance will follow these folk dances, and will have a notably more hip hop feel to it. It is called the Beats of Lanka and will feature beats inspired by pop music of today.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to enjoy the Sri Lankan food served at the event.

“It was a lot of patience and coordination,”said Migara Perera, senior in mechanical engineering and president of the club. “Even though most members in the club are graduates and have a lot of work than the undergrads, still everyone sacrificed a lot of their free time and money to make this event possible.”

Munasinghe echoed Perera’s sentiments about the preparation.

“We have a very small community of Sri Lankans in Ames [about 30 to 50 people] and it took a lot of dedication and hard work to get this event going,” Munasinghe said. “We had our first Sri Lankan night three years ago, and for various reasons we have not been able to have one in the years since. We got some funding from GSB, but the rest was raised through various fundraisers over the last few years.”

The members of the club had to practice for months in preparation of the event, many of whom had never danced on stage before.

The event is from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March 30, 2013.