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“I danced and I danced and I danced”
By Manik Sandrasagra
Chitrasena the greatest dancer Sri Lanka produced in living memory passed away at midnight last Sunday. This large-hearted man who was also my kalyana mithre passed into legend and was cremated as he lived – dancing all the way home.

Forty eight hours before his passing he invited his immediate family and closest friends to an Idthing Pinkama – where surrounded by his dancing partner and wife Vajira, daughters Upeka, Anjali and son Anudatta, their wives and his beloved grandchildren, he celebrated his dance of life with those of us who were privileged in sharing his last moments in samsara with him, as he sat on his wheelchair, waiting for his dance to merge with the dance of Shiva.

The Barefoot Gallery in the past has hosted many events as a contribution to the arts. With the arbitrary closing down of the Art Centre Club which was an oasis for the creative elite of this country, Dominic Sansoni following in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor Arthur Van Langenberg provided the setting for this extraordinary celebration of life. I was one of those who sat with the master making him laugh and smile while awaiting his call. As we sat around Chitra sipping red wine and imbibing in the elixir of life which was all he could retain I asked him in jest how he would explain his life to God when he arrived at the pearly gates considering that he had continued through life to live it to the fullest. His instant response was “I will tell God that I danced and I danced and I danced”.

Ever since I heard that Chitra was nearing his end I made it a point to visit him as often as time would permit. In life we often ignore the living until it is too late and then mourn the dead. I wanted to catch up on time and see my beloved friend with whom I shared many an experience before he merged his dance with that of the Divine.

Our friendship had blossomed ever since we walked together following Swami Gauribala from Pottuvil to Kataragama on the Pada Yatra in 1973. Since then our journeys of the spirit included visiting Bhikku Sumedha and Siva Kalki Swami better known as Mike Wilson when they were communing with the Gods in a cave on the summit of one of the seven hills of Kataragama. Once again we journeyed together to Anuradhapura and Jaffna also in quest of that secret elixir of life that we had both tasted and which we knew dispensed eternal youth.

Chitra’s death was his greatest performance. I am glad I saw him as often as I did and that we shared for a few moments each day his suffering drowning it with wine and the elixir of life. Each day he would clasp my hands and say with resignation, “It is over” while he waited for the Divine Mother to end his pain. The French conferred a title on him as he awaited his end, but like no other ordinary mortal, death was just another phase as he was prepared with no regrets for his final curtain call. His former pupil the President of Sri Lanka called him and this lifted his spirits while her elder sister Sunethra in her own inimitable manner continued to provide Chitra the sustenance that every artist yearns for as the end approaches.

When Sesha Palihakkara visited me just a week ago after many years I took him along to see Chitra as he waited his final call. Sesha related how he had first met Chitra having been captivated by the figure of a dancer as depicted by Somabhandu on a hoarding. This led to his meeting Chitra himself and seeing him dance as far back as 1943. According to Sesha who has danced with many of the greats in India he has never seen anybody dance better in his life.

Those who knew his discipline and his contribution to the arts will now eulogize his work, but to me Chitrasena remains a beloved friend who danced through life. I have watched him inebriated dancing with the late Swami Gauribala and Mahen Vaithianathan in the golden days of post independence creativity in this island when a liberal society provided the forum for other greats like Chitra to move with the spirit.

Those were the days when Manjusri, Sarachchandra, Amaradeva, Joe Abeywickrema, Dhamma Jagoda, Henry Jayasena and others dedicated to Sinhala cultural awakening shared with Arthur van Langenberg, Bevis Bawa, Nihal Ratnaike, Neville Weeraratne, Mervyn de Silva, Phillip Coorey, Ernest Macintyre, Karan Breckenridge and others dedicated to English theatre and culture their joys and woes at the Art Centre Club that Harold Peiris had built to commemorate the memory of Lionel Wendt another bohemian. With the Art Centre Club closing down this liberal community who celebrated life and living were replaced by the living dead who became caretakers of a monument that made the sale of fake antiques their primary objective.

Chitrasena leaves behind a rich heritage not only in dance but about living. He did not choose publicity although it was thrust upon him. He preferred his moments of quiet joy with those whom he loved and those who loved him rather than spending time with the rich and famous. When his home was in Kollupitiya the neighbourhood resounded to the sounds of drums as he brought to town those spellbinding rituals that had attracted him in his youth. Chitra shared with us his living experience. Seeing the elder Buddhwatte Punchi Gura dance the Kankariya at Chitra’s sixtieth birthday was a gift he gave those whom he invited to his home. How can we ever repay him and Vajira for their generosity?

That this mecca of cultural mediocrity could not respond to the spirit of Chitrasena is another tragedy of our times. For years he, Vajira and the family have inspite of the generosity and magnanimity of President Chandrika Kumaratunga not been able to re-house their academy once they were moved out of Kollupitiya to make way for so-called development.

Chandrika gifted them land, but without the cash to build a theatre it remains in the realm of dreams. Upeka has inherited the uphill task of continuing the paramparawa. It is yet not too late for all those who publicly lament about the loss of Sinhala culture to move from rhetoric to practice by at least in death re-building a stage for Chitra to dance once more through his many thousands of students for the serene joy and emotion of the pious in this land which some of us still believe to be Dhammadweepa. Chitra experienced bliss in life through the dance and his legacy will be as he himself expressed “I danced and I danced and I danced”.

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