Chitrasena reminisced
Part IV:
He would be a nonagenarian had he been among us today. Born
Amaratunga Arachige Maurice Dias, Chitrasena is internationally known
for his work in establishing a modern Sri Lankan tradition of dance and
popularizing traditional Sri Lankan dance forms worldwide. Chitrasena’s
ninetieth birth anniversary fell on January 26.
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Conducting a dance workshop at a ballet in Moscow - 1963 |
Daily News Artscope reproduces the account of Chitrasena as laid down
in Nrtya Puja, which was published in 1986 to celebrate 50 years of his
contribution to the country’s art.
A dance artiste I much admired was Uday Shankar. In my early period I
was greatly inspired by his stage presentations when he visited Sri
Lanka with his troupe in the ‘40s and ‘50s. When I reflect on his life I
am reminded of the strange coincidence that brought him to the world of
dance.
The son of the Dewan of Udaipur and brother of Ravi Shankar, he was
studying painting under Sir William Rothenstein at the Royal College of
Arts in London when Pavlova the great Russian ballerina happened to be
touring London at the time and was in search of a Krishna to play
opposite her Radha.
A chance meeting and Uday Shankar was weaned away from his painting.
But playing Krishna did not satisfy him for long and being dissuaded by
Pavlova from learning Western Classical ballet he returned to India and
there collected the best talents to form the famous Uday Shankar Dance
Company.
Another artiste I cannot ignore is Isadora Duncan, the pioneer of the
Western Modern Dance. My introduction to Isadora Duncan through her
autobiography ‘My Life’ had a marked influence on my early artistic
career. I remember my friend and mentor, the late Mr.S.Sanmuganathan
saying to me, “this is a book evert artiste must read.”
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Fresh days of dancing |
He was the nephew of Ananda Coomaraswamy and after spending 15 years
in England returned to Sri Lanka as Assistant Commissioner of the
Archaeological Department.
He was a gentleman of great culture with a fine taste and knowledge
of the fine arts, and I was very fortunate to have his guidance early in
my career. He had a fantastic library in his home at Hendala to which I
had easy access.
The Natya Shastra, books on Western Ballet such as Arnold Haskell’s
History of the Classical Ballet, works on Diaghiley, Nijinsky, the
Imperial Ballet in fact anything and everything that widened and
deepened my knowledge of the dance and theatre I absorbed.
As I said earlier Isadora Duncan was a remarkable artiste a rebel who
had the courage of her convictions to defy all the norms of the
classical tradition, throw off her ballet shoesand dance barefoot the
most natural thing in the world.
Her dancing was guided more by intuition and she drew for inspiration
of the classical Greek tradition. Listening to the music of the
classical masters, her whole being would be transfused and her
outpourings were lyrical and enchanting replying solely on the
inspiration of the moment.
While young and beautiful she was able to hold her audience, but as
she grew older and heavier her lack of sound technique proved to be her
undoing. She says in her book, “my body is the temple of my art and I
expose it as a shrine for the worship of beauty.”
Going back to Sanmuganathan, he first saw me dance at the National
Theatre in my solo ‘Shiva Tandava.’ The National Theatre, which is no
more now, was built by the late P. de S. Kularatna opposite the new
Olympia.
Sanmuganathan was so taken up by my dancing I was then fresh from
India that he more or less took my career into his hands and stage
managed and produced many of my shows. He was a friend of Uday Shankar
and saw a striking resemblance between us.
He taught me the discipline of the theatre. He,slong with my father,
T.V. Saravanamuttu and Devar Surya Sena organised ‘The Pageant of Lanka’
which was held to mark the independence Day celebrations of 1948 in the
Air Force Hangar which was sited at the present Independence Square
grounds.
It had a cast of around 400 and the various episodes taken from
history were relegated to different individuals. I presented Ravana and
Landing of Vijaya.
An Englishman named Mr. Green who was studying at the Kalayathanaya,
and Irangani Serasinghe, then Meedeniya, were Rama and Sita respectively
and in Landing of Vijaya Lakshmi Dias Bandaranaike played the role of
Kuveni with the late Ganganath as Vijaya.
Talking of India, or shall I say my Indian period covering about 10
years was one of the most stimulating and enriching periods of my life.
Young and impressionalble I saw it in its diversity, its rich cultural
traditions, its powerful magnanimous leaders embodies in such great
personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sri
AurobindoGhosh.
My first visit beginning in 1939 was to Travancore. My maternal uncle
the late Sir D.B.Jayatilake, who was a great source of encouragement,
sent me with an introductory letter to his friend the Dewan of
Travancore Sir C.P.Ramasamy lyer, a reputed Oriental scholar.
Here I studied Kathakali at the Sri Chitrodaya Narthakalayam under
Gopinath who was a court dancer of Travancore. Gopinath was a very fine
dancer and teacher who had broken away from the traditional Kathakali
style.
Later at the Kerala Kala Mandalam I learnt the pure Kathakali
technique. During my Indian sojourn I traveled the length and breadth of
that vast continent visiting numerous dance centres in Lucknow, Lahore,
Uday SHankar’s dance centre in Almora, Assam and so on.
Q: From what youearlier stated Shantiniketan played an important part
in your life. Can you recreate its atmosphere, your impressions and
experiences?
A: To do so I shall have to draw on Tagore’s ideals. Shantiniketan
was born of an ideal, a vision. I think Tagore’s spirit is best
exemplified in his beautiful song translated from the original Bengali.
“Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrance of
freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.
Thou ever pourest for me the fresh draught of thy wine of various
colours and fragrance, filling this earthern vessel to the brim.
My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame and
place them before the altar of thy temple. |
