• The many hats of Shannon Raymond 

Humans are innately creative beings. Some of us are better at creative pursuits than others, but that is not to say that others are not creative. Balancing this creativity with other needs and goals in life is a much more delicate dance than it looks. 

Nevertheless, it is possible and this week The Sunday Morning Brunch spoke with someone who has carved a unique path for themselves in fields that seem immensely unconnected, but at the end of the day share much more in common than one would expect. 

As a personality, Shannon Raymond is unusual. He is the only internationally qualified mortician in Sri Lanka – a decidedly ‘uncreative’ pursuit. On the flip side, he is also a qualified tap dancer with a degree in performing arts. 

Most recently, he has donned another cap of sorts, that of photographer and author. Yesterday (1) saw the launch of Shannon’s first book, ‘2020: Kandy Danced,’ a book that chronicles the resilience of the Sri Lankan spirit through the 2020 Kandy Esala Perahera, which took place amid an islandwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Brunch explored ‘2020: Kandy Danced’ with Shannon and pulled back the curtain on the wide spectrum of his different passions, as well as how he sees them connect. 

Capturing the unseen

The book ‘2020: Kandy Danced’ is more than just a collection of photographs; it is a visual narrative of dedication, perseverance, and cultural continuity in a time that was fraught with uncertainty, fear, and disruption. 

“The year 2020 was a time in which everyone was scared to step out of their homes. People have forgotten it now, but it was only a few short years ago when you couldn’t go out, shops were closed, and you had no idea what was going to happen from one day to the next,” Shannon shared.

“Buzzwords like ‘superspreaders’ put an end to events of all kinds, from parties to funerals, but despite this, the Esala Perehera took place and nearly 1,000 people participated. It was a show of the resilience and determination of the human spirit. 

“It was even more powerful because this is a globally recognised cultural heritage event and the fact that they kept it going regardless is remarkable. The book ‘2020: Kandy Danced’ is more about the work that these performers did and an attempt to document the passion and the hard work that went into it. 

“For some of them it is a lifetime achievement to be able to participate in the Kandy Perahera and this is what I wanted to highlight. By no stretch of the imagination do I claim to be a photographer. I was just fortunate enough to be there and take these photos and people engaged with them.” 

Shannon’s perspective in ‘2020: Kandy Danced’ is that of a fellow performer. As a dancer himself, he understands just how much work goes into a performance, from the individual performers themselves and the range of techniques they must perfect for even the shortest performance to the costumes and the many other behind-the-scenes details that bring a performance together. 

The Kandy Esala Perahera is one of Sri Lanka’s most cherished traditions, a grand procession of dancers, drummers, and elephants honouring the Sacred Tooth Relic. Yet, in 2020, with the world reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, the perahera was a shadow of its usual grandeur – scaled down, restricted, but still deeply significant.

Shannon’s book is a tribute to this unwavering spirit. His lens focuses on the details – the intensity in a dancer’s eyes, the rhythmic precision of a drummer’s hands, and the grandeur of traditional costumes against the emptier streets of an island in lockdown. 

Through his images, which are juxtaposed with quotes on resilience and determination from famous minds from all over the world, he seeks not only to document but also to provoke thought, encouraging viewers to look deeper and appreciate the power of determination and passion. 

As a limited edition, only 250 copies of ‘2020: Kandy Danced’ were printed. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Victoria Home, Rajagiriya and the Artists’ Welfare Fund, further reinforcing Shannon’s commitment to using his work for the greater good and also contributing to the arts. 

A man of many hats

While he has recently released a book of photography, Shannon does not identify as an author or photographer. His unconventional journey sees him stand as Sri Lanka’s only internationally qualified mortician. However, Shannon’s story does not end there. He is also a trained tap dancer, an art form he describes as “another way to express rhythm and to tell a story without words”.

His role as a mortician stems from the family business – A.F. Raymond. As a child, Shannon was in and out of the family business. “I witnessed my first autopsy at age seven and it was one of the greatest turning points in my evolution as a human being. At seven, I knew what a human heart looked like – what my own heart looked like. It sparked an intense curiosity for knowledge in me,” he said. 

However, Shannon was also an avid theatre kid. His first role was that of Oliver Twist in a production by The Workshop Players. “It sparked the theatre bug in me and I went on to do a degree in performing arts. I did tap dance because I was incredibly fascinated by it. A lot of my uncles and even my brother are musicians of some sort, but through tap dance, I could create different rhythms and expressions with just my feet and that fascinated me,” Shannon explained.

“I also realised there wasn’t really anyone performing or teaching tap in Sri Lanka and it became my pursuit even when I went abroad. The only reason I completed a degree in performing arts was because I was very clear about my objectives. I wanted the skill level to perform at an international level on an international stage. Once I achieved that I came back because I felt there was a lot more I could do here than being a dance teacher in another country.” 

Shannon currently teaches tap dance with his guru Nandana Balasuriya and also focuses on blending elements of dance with regional dance practices such as Kandyan dance, low country dance, kathak, kathakali, and bharatanatyam, both as a means of experimenting with these crafts as well as in order to make them more accessible. 

“Whatever you do has to be accessible and entertaining to an audience,” he explained, “You can be as profound as you want, but if it doesn’t entertain people, then it doesn’t actually work.” 

Not quite worlds apart

Shannon’s qualifications seem like entirely different worlds of study, but interestingly, he shared just how similar embalming and dance were. 

“They deal with the same subject matter. People just don’t see the relationship, but for me it’s pretty evident. In both subjects you study the human body – musculature and circulation. You get deep insight into how to prevent damage to muscles – it’s quite similar. For example, it’s not like dealing with steamboats on one hand and farming on the other,” he observed.

Shannon began studying to be a mortician when he was young. It was a decision he made at the age of 15 and he was also driven by his desire to study performing arts, which he needed to study while he was younger and not in his twenties. 

Typically, studying embalming is not encouraged until students are at least 21 years old given the seriousness of it, not just from an educational perspective but also from an emotional perspective. 

“You have to be mature enough to know what you’re handling and getting into. But since my family business was to do with it and I already had knowledge of the process and had some practice as well, I was given dispensation to do the programme. I qualified at the age of 18 before going on to study performing arts,” Shannon explained. 

“Embalming is basically two years of medical college, where what you learn has a very similar structure. You learn what chemicals are given for which illnesses because that has a direct relationship to how you treat a case. You learn what to do when certain arteries and veins are blocked and which other arteries you can use to supply blood to specific parts of the body. 

“Then there is another side of embalming that has a very ironic overlap to theatre and performance – makeup, involving how to construct or reconstruct something to look a certain way and so on.” 

Commenting on how he has balanced these two different pursuits, Shannon explained that he focused on simplifying things down to whether he was passionate about it, which was what led to him pursuing these two fields which seem worlds apart. 

“If you’re interested in something, then pursue it,” he urged. “Human beings in general are governed by fear; whether as kids in school or as adults, there is always a fear factor that people are controlled by. If you get over that fear within yourself and refuse to go by what others tell you, it opens up a whole new world. 

“That thirst for knowledge, for experimenting, and not being scared to try things is the greatest thing you can try and pursue. The only thing it can lead you to is yourself. If you ever want to do something, do not be scared. Whatever you do, do it passionately.” 

Info box

‘2020: Kandy Danced’ is priced at Rs. 9,500 and will be available for purchase while stocks last. Books can be delivered within Colombo City

To inquire about purchasing a copy, contact:

Email: annicksansoni@gmail.com