Today I'm going to write about one of the artists I respect. He did a valuable service to our dance culture. Amarathunga Arachchige Maurice Dias was a traditional dancer in Sri Lanka. Later he dropped his Portuguese influenced name and adopted an oriental name; Chithrasena. His father was the late Seebert Dias, well known actor as well as a producer. Sir Chithrasena was encouraged by his father from a young age to learn dance and theatre.
When Sir Chithrasena was a schoolboy, he acted the role of "Siri Sangabo", the first Sinhala ballet produced and directed by his father. This young boy presented the role using his Kandyan dance techniques. He got a chance to learn one of the Indian dance styles; Kathakali in India. He is the founder of Chithrasena dance company. Also he got a special chance to lead the main role opposite to Indian famous artist Sir Rabindranath Thagor's grand-daughter in the dance drama "Chandalika".
He produced so many oriental dance dramas. "Rama & Seeta, Vidura, Ravana, Nala Damayanthi, Himakumariya, Sepalika" are some of them. After Sir Chithrasena's death his wife managed the Chithrasena-Vajira dance foundation till today with the help of their daughter and grand-daughter. Sir Chithrasena added a value to our oriental dance field.
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| Sir Chithrasena & Madam Vajira |
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