The impact of familial influence on dancing: a study among undergraduates who have selected dance as a subject in public universities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is rich in highly stylized traditional dance forms. During the early days, traditional dance forms of Sri Lanka had been sustained and preserved by special groups of families. Sri Lankan traditional dance forms were mostly transmitted from one generation to the other by their descendants. There were many well-known lineages related to the field of dance. The objective of this study was designed based on this cultural background and this paper examines the impact of familial influence on learning dancing. It is difficult to find researches or studies carried out to reveal the relationship between family influence and dance in the Sri Lankan context. Since the field of dance is spread broadly in present days, this research focused only on finding the impact of familial influence for selecting dance as a subject among the students who have selected dance for their higher studies. A total of 400 undergraduates have been engaged as the sample from three different state universities. In order to collect data in achieving the objectives of the study the mixed methodology was used: both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected to understand the familial influences on selecting dance. Interviewer administered questionnaire surveys were done. The findings indicate that family background is not very influential on learning dancing among the undergraduates and only 20.75 percent of the sample inherited dance from their families. Among them, the highest numbers of undergraduates belong to the first generation of their lineage. 95.75 percent of the sample believes that familial influence is not so important in learning dancing at different levels and the most demanding need of familial influence is only to gain recognition in the field of dance.