A student's tribute:

Chitrasena in retrospect

Gwen Herat

DANCE: One year ago, the doyen of Kandyan dancing passed away but not before leaving the dynasty of his art in the safe hands of his wife, Vajira, daughter Upeka and their siblings.

As the fading glow of the evening settled gently upon his still visible classical features, Chitrasena swung around to eternity.

The brightly lit torch was passed down to Vajira who in retrospect, keeps the flame burning and flickering with sparks among the flock to whom dancing matters...to whom it is the very breath of life...and so goes on life at the Chitrasena-Vajira Foundation.

Chitrasena's extraordinary energy level amazed everyone who saw him dance even in the sun-set of his last years. Chitrasena's impatience had a way of spilling over and often it was a kick-start for excellence on stage.

To me, he was like a dormant volcano 'neath a gentle lake. I had a taste of it as a pre-teenager when I danced in Nala-Damayanthi missing a couple of steps. Chitrasena growled and scowled on stage but did not even pull me up after the show at Trinity College.

International stage

His partnership with Vajira set the Sri Lankan theatre ablaze for decades and as they moved into the international stage of explosion and self-expression, dance lovers were seen exploring the world map to spot where little Sri Lanka was. Wherever Chitrasena performed, the auditoriums spilled over.

The public, down the years, had without hype or contrivance elected to embrace the two dancers hugely gifted and whose endeavour created legends in folklore as well as in dance. The drummers found their rhythm on stage whereas they were confined to religious occasion in temples and ushering the dead to their graves.

The 'vannamas' came into focus and some that were the sole narrations of different 'peraharas' found a new identity on stage with the dancers. Fifty years ago, the dancer and the drummer mellowed unto each under the colossus Chitrasena. He cut the first sod to raise a kingdom in which Kandyan dance would suffice.

He had to create the syllabus, the rhythm and the steps and leaps which by and by led to the ordination of 'ves' that is so traditional in pure Kandyan dance. Having done that, he had to deliver it to the nation and finally won.

Today, Kandyan dance is the foremost in our country while the rest of the world marvelled. But given theatrical stardom always carries its downside and Chitrasena experienced pressure when his studio at Kollupitiya was acquired.

It was the meanest blow levelled at an icon who was peddling his country to international fame while grooming thousands of youngsters in his beloved art. Chitrasena's progression was remarkable, given his entry into a culture strictly classical training.

Female dancers

Chitrasena as a catalyst for his dance troupe was somehow a stimulus for female dancers who hitherto had shunned the stage. He projected Vajira as the brilliant answer to this situation not by merely being a showcase but placing women dancers centre-stage.

By now there was no mistaking the remarkable artistic harmony these two produced in what was in many eyes, a revolution from the stage. They were a pair of scissors that cut, ripped, screwed and sharpened every move. Chitrasena and Vajira could never have been taken apart as they travelled towards their goal and reached it magnificently.

Chitrasena dazzled the audience not only in the wizardry of his dancing but with his dark handsome personality basically belonging to a Shakespearean actor.

Well-built, rough as an uncut diamond, classically moulded features befit only a spectacular person of the arts, he had boundless energy and balance.

His all-masculine personality set against the petit Vajira, the embodiment of grace, charm and femininge-glow, made them a great pair. I can never forget how he sank into Nala the way Vajira sank into the role of Damayanthi, reminding the Swan Lake ballet. Their technicalities sank into each other's response.

But Chitrasena was the Master of the scene.

Few dancers have ever achieved stillness on the scale achieved by Chitrasena. When his power was in full play, no one could have touched Chitrasena in moments of flash revelation as held on both sides of the footlights.

His boundless energy an appetite has now become only a memory but an inspiration to keep his spirit a live and kicking.

Genius

Chitrasena never had the capacity to intensify repose that what would have gone on backstage after a performance because he had rarely made more effective use of it, a genius who could turn anything to his art's advantage.

Quality was destined to endear Chitrasena more abroad than locally as the audiences had the opportunity to compare Kandyan dancing with other dances of the world into parts which his troupe visited.

But the significant feature of Chitrasena saga was how he had come to reach the pinnacle against odds of the moment when he embarked on the professionalism in Kandyan dancing.

While neighbouring India was well settled with her Bharata Natyam, Kathakali, Kathak and Manipuri the main arts forms, Sri Lanka had failed to identify her own form of dance while in the background, western dancing and ballet were contained in the Colombo circles and few privileged schools.

Of course, we had our folk dancing and a mixture of it displayed in perahara while Kadyan dancing stood on deck, waiting to be discovered in all its glory.

It was waiting for its Messiah and Chitrasena fitted the cause to perfection.

He understood the urgency of the situation and the combination of all qualities in the art of pure Kandyan dancing and put them together to produce what we see his third generation of dancers performed as a tribute to him last week.

The fresh air of Chitrasena's dancing was the right gust at the right time. As he got his ensemble together, he knew he had arrived. His energy and enthusiasm were infectious, especially to Vajira.

Performing arts

One ballet after another followed and Chitrasena became the symbol of the performing arts in our country. What he has achieved cannot be put down in writing.

The sweat and time he dedicated to the establishment of Kandyan dance, was never recognised by the State the way it should have been. Had the State lent a helping hand to foster this art, the results could have been spectacular and a tribute to its Master.

On the contrary, without assisting him, they snatched off what was most precious to him, his Kollupitiya studio without which he had to suffer immensely conducting classes in the open.

It interrupted the smooth flow of his school but Chitrasena whose life-blood was his dance, was not deterred. Through thick and thin, he spread the gospel of art while training his family to sustain it when he was no more.

To his brilliant spirit that hovers over all of us, his art lives.

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