Living next door to an Avatar ...

Chitrasena, my neighbour

by Sharm de Alwis

It was in the spacious mid 40s that we came from the tranquil outskirts of Kurunegala, then a mere small town just above the status of a hamlet, to live on Galle Road, Kollupitiya. The two-mile expanse from Kollupitiya to Bambalapitiya had, in an earlier era been the plush residential locale of the affluent when Colombo Seven was yet gardens of cinnamon.

By the time I arrived in Kollupitiya, Colombo, Seven, Aka Cinnamon Gardens, had usurped the one-upmanship of tinsel town.

I was only a fledgling of 15 years or 720 full moons and had been brought up in a cloistered environment of a boys' school in a rural town which it was then, without pretensions of being the capital of the Kandyan kingdom. But in that provincial school I had been destined to be tutored in Kandyan dancing by the best in the world-Nittawela Gunaya Gurunnansey.

Now I was separated by one thin wall from the leading school for teaching traditional dance and Sinhala ballet and did it not throb and pulsate with the beat of my own surging heart as Chitrasena and his entourage rehearsed: all demi-gods in their own chosen discipline - Chitrasena's brother, the volatile Sarathsena on the spasmed drums; Sesha Palihakkara of the twinkling steps epitomatic of Rama, Edmund Samaradhiwakara and Amaradeva as Albert Perera as he was then, on violin and sitar; Sunil Santha, Ananda Samarakone, Chitra and Somapala of the lilting vocals; Chitrasena, himself, the lord Avatar who would romp as Ravana and masculinate as the heroic figures of the deathless dance and Vajira, blooming into the gracious premiere danseuse of the country.

With such an array of maestros it was inevitable that Chitrasena would cross and blaze new horizons. He infused a dynamism to the art. The effusion was qualitative.

Vidura in 1945 was his first venture followed by the glittering Kinkini, Nala Damayanthi, Nirthanjali which was theatre at its best with a wide repertoire of folk dances of every conceivable scope and type; and Karadiya which, perhaps, remains as his piece de resistance. All in all he staged over 30 ballets and as John Gregory has observed, he "ploughed a new furrow."

Chitrasena distilled and blended the cultural, spiritual and historical components of the Kandyan, Sabaragamuwa, Low country and Kohomba Kankariya dance themes in a mix that had stunning effect to captivate spellbound aficionados all over the civilised world where dance is worshipped.

As the son of Seebert Dias Amaratunga, the pioneering king-pin of classical drama and nephew of Sir D. Baron Jayathileka, he had the muse in his genes.

Shanti Niketan honed his thirst and he was determined to seek in the dark caverns the gems of our traditional culture and he was destined to be crowned in glory and as Nihal Ratnaike has written, "Chitrasena took the dance and infused theatre into it ... highly polished form of modern theatre entertainment ... condensed 2,500 years of traditionally rhythmic movements into modern theatre."

Vajira cannot be denied her spot in this essay. She was a wisp of a teenaged girl when she came under Chitrasena's wings.

I watched her constantly at rehearsals and how tenderly the master guided her and finally, as Bandula Jayawardhana has said better than I can, "Out of the ferment of an experimental phase emerged Sri Lanka's most accomplished ballerina, Vajira, with her natural talents and her ideally balletic figure."

At the zenith of their success they were dealt a cruel blow by political revenge and the studio they had lovingly carved from the premises gifted by a lover of the fine arts was taken over and today it is bare land.

Chitrasena packed his wherewithals and moved with his dignity intact, to Mahara which is, coincidentally, cheek by jowl from where I have lived.

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga conferred a Presidential gift of property in Narahenpita which is more conducive to a School of Dance. Plans are now afoot to re-build the Kalayathanaya as a National Dance Academy. The Chitrasena-Vajira Foundation will ensure that the cultural ashram will flourish again.