Dancing icon Dr Panibharatha’s daughter on her father:

‘He was a giant with a soft heart’

Sachitra MAHENDRA

Sri Lanka’s national icon on Dancing, Dr. S Panibharatha’s 88th birth commemoration falls on February 24th. With a few days more Panibharatha’s youngest daughter Jayawanthi shares dear memories of her father’s days with Daily News.

Her memory on childhood is haunted with drumming, music, painting and many others. Her home was always full of students struggling to inherit these arts. She recalls the sweet days when her father was alive, the days her father influenced her.

“Upuli and I actually didn’t feel him like a father. We had a distance with father due to our respect for him. We were sometimes frightened of him, because he seemed like a giant to us. I shall better call him a giant with a soft heart.”

Hardly anybody could have not heard of Panibharatha, though only a few must be aware of his yeoman service to the nation.

He was a first lecturer at Government College of Dancing and Ballet and later pioneered the formation of University of the Visual & Performing Arts out of its original state of being affiliated to Kelaniya University. Panibharatha, for these and many other services, was conferred an honorary Doctorate by the Kelaniya University.

Babanchi Algama of Hatharakorale, Kegalle district, and Dingiri Ukku wanted their son to be a physician, but a visit to Saman Devalaya had challenged Panibharatha’s career intentions and let him into dancing continuing the profession of his ancestors.

The student Panibharatha gradually excelled in both up-country and low-country dancing and drumming under Kiriganitha Gurunnanse and Girineris Gurunnanse respectively. The village life in a religious background made him a cultured man and that brought him fame even in foreign lands.

Following a tour of India in 1938, he was lucky enough to get hold of a Shanthi Nikethan scholarship in 1944. He completed Shanti Nikethan studies by 1948 and came to Sri Lanka to be known as Panibharatha.

“He is a national figure. And also a versatile man. He did painting, music, dancing, and there is more we cannot even fathom. We were tagging along in this environment from the tender age of 4. He has influenced us and that is boundless,” Jayawanthi recalls.

Jayawanthi did not learn from her father, but was influenced to learn dancing. The result was her studying Manipuri in Shanthi Nikethan, a shelter for many great artistes. Panibharatha, together with his wife and two daughters, travelled around the world a great deal.

“Father was known not only here but famous abroad too. He was well respected in countries like Japan. We too had good exposure by going to different countries.”

Jayawanthi’s mother Premalatha Panibharatha also used to help her husband every possible instance.

“Even now she helps us by providing various ornaments and clothing.”

Talking on traditional dancing, Jayawanthi expresses her concern about traditional dancing in Sri Lanka not recognised properly, but instead it becoming a money-spinner.

“In my father’s days, it was considered a sacred art. Students were lodged in the teacher’s place and learnt all the arts. But now they are interested in many other things and dancing has merely become a ‘certificate’.

Many have certificates in dancing, but they cannot perform well. In dancing of course it is performance that matters most, not the certificate.”

Jayawanthi adds that theory is also important in addition to practice. The dancer, equipped with theory knowledge but without body flexibility, however is useless.

“Today traditional dancing is fast deteriorating. Only a few people still adhere to it. Not that western dancing is no good. But we have to know the spirit of our traditional dancing too. That’s why occasionally I perform traditional dancing.”

Jayawanthi is busy with her Kids’ Zone, an activity hub located along Pagoda Road between Nugegoda and Pitakotte.

“Here we do every sorts of things, elocution, dancing, music, painting, everything.” Jayawanthi said.

Jayawanthi is also a visiting lecturer on Dancing at the University of Visual & Performing Arts - the academy nurtured by her father.

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