Chitrasena

Deshamanya Chitrasena (born Amaratunga Arachige Maurice Dias) (26 January 1921 – 18 July 2005) was a dancer from Sri Lanka, internationally known for his work in establishing a modern Sri Lankan tradition of dance and popularising traditional Sri Lankan dance forms worldwide.

Amaratunga Arachige Maurice Dias alias Chitrasena was born on 26 January 1921 at Waragoda, Kelaniya in Sri Lanka.

His father was late Seebert Dias, well known actor/ producer of the 20s and 30s, founder and instructor for the Colombo Dramatic Club, producer of John de Silva plays, luminary in the theatrical circles of the day, and was a pioneer actor/director of Shakespearean dramas in Sinhala and English.

Chitrasena was encouraged by his father from a young age to learn dance and theatre.

In India, Tagore had established his Santiniketan.

His lectures on his visit to Sri Lanka, in 1934 had inspired a revolutionary change in the outlook of many educated men and women.

Tagore had stressed the need for a people to discover its own culture to be able to assimilate fruitfully the best of other cultures.

Chitrasena was a schoolboy at the time, and his father Seebert Dias' house had become a veritable cultural centre frequented by the literary and artistic intelligentsia of the time.

In 1936, Chitrasena made his debut at the Regal Theatre at the age of 15 in the role of Siri Sangabo, the first Sinhala ballet produced and directed by his father.

Presented in Kandyan technique, Chitrasena played the lead role, and this made people take notice of the boy's talents.

D.B. Jayatilake, who was Vice-chairman of the board of Ministers under British council administration, Buddhist scholar, founder and first President of the Colombo Y.M.B.A, freedom fighter, Leader of the State Council and Minister of Home Affairs, was a great source of encouragement to the young dancer.

Chitrasena learnt Kandyan dance from Algama Kiriganithaya Gurunnanse, Muddanawe Appuwa Gurunnanse, Bevilgamuwe Lnpaya Gurunnanse.

Having mastered the traditional Kandyan dance, his 'Ves Bandeema' ceremony of graduation by placing the 'Ves Thattuwa' on the initiate's head followed by the 'Kala-eliya' mangallaya, took place in 1940.

In the same year he proceeded to Travancore to study Kathakali dance at Sri Chitrodaya Natyakalalayam under Sri Gopinath, Court dancer in Travancore.

He gave a command performance with Chandralekha (wife of portrait painter J.D.A. Perera) before the Maharaja and Maharani of Travancore at the Kowdiar Palace.

He later studied Kathakali at the Kerala Kalamandalam.

In 1941, Chitrasena performed at the Regal Theatre – one of the first dance recitals of its kind – before the Governor Sir Andrew Caldecott and Lady Caldecott with Chandralekha and her troupe.

Chandralekha was one of the first women to break into the field of the Kandyan dance.

Chitrasena founded the Chitrasena Dance Company in 1943.

He toured extensively in the provinces.

Chitrasena's brother Sarathsena, a versatile drummer, and sister Munirani were associated in the early dance period.

Munirani was a soloist in 'Vidura' ballet.

Chitrasena established the first school of National dance, the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya, in Colombo at Kollupitiya in 1944.

The sprawling building was handed to him by Sir Ernest Fernando, a great patron of the arts – to pursue and further his artistic work.

Starting as a small nucleus, the dance centre where Chitrasena lived and worked for 40 years was to become a landmark and a renowned cultural centre for dance enthusiasts and connoisseurs of the arts.

In 1945, Chitrasena studied at Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan in Bengal and had the distinction of dancing the lead role as Ananda in Tagore's dance drama 'Chandalika' opposite Nandita Kriplani, Tagore's granddaughter.

Chitrasena is a contemporary of Uday Shankar.

He represented Shantiniketan at the All India Dance Festival in Delhi.

He visited numerous dance centres in Lucknow, Lahore, and Uday Shankar's dance centre in Almora, Assam.

He performed in a Shantiniketan show in aid of Tagore's Memorial fund at the New Empire theatre in Calcutta.

Rabindranath Tagore and the indigenous revival among India's Bengali elite inspired several Sri Lankan artistes to drop their Portuguese influenced names and adopt oriental names.

Amaradeva, Sarachchandra and Chitrasena are some of those who did.

The early period was fraught with severe hardship, insecurity and frustration.

The urban intelligentsia, nurtured as they were on pseudo- colonial values, frowned on things indigenous, or at best with native curiosity.

They were unprepared to accept the idea of the traditional dance in relationship to the theatre.

They faced adversities including: indignities, insults, lack of patronage, a reluctant and disoriented public, little if any media coverage, oppositional leaflets circulated claiming that the traditional dance was being destroyed, and anonymous postcards.

Chitrasena was breaking new ground and there were instances of him being actually hooted off the stage.

Not belonging to the traditional dancing 'parampara' it took him years of hard work to be recognised as an artiste in his own right.

Even the traditional dancers who were the proud custodians of an ancient heritage going back over 3,000 years, looked on Chitrasena with derision.

He was awarded the Deshamanya award by the Sri Lankan government in 1998.he moved to india to study other dance forms.chitrasena found the chithrasena dance company in 1943.he studied in the famous shantinikethan.the founder of shantinikethan is rabindranath thagore.in 1951, chithrasena married to his pupil vajira who went on to become a fine performer.chithrasena has danced before maharajas,the queen of England,dukes and duchesses,prime ministers, princess and kings