My friend Vajira is 83 today!
Many are the tributes that have been paid to Vajira the Dancer, both in Sri Lanka and internationally. There is little more that I can add, so, I would like to focus today, on her 83rd birthday, on Vajira the person.
This is my personal tribute to her, as a fellow dancer, admirer and I would like to add – friend.
My first indelible impression of Vajira, was when she danced the swan in “Nala Damayanthi” a role Chitrasena created especially for her, while her sister Vipuli was Damayanthi and Chitrasena, cast himself as Nala. This was in 1949, and the image of her very fluid, emotive movements, has remained a silent inspiration to me.
Through the years, our dancing paths have crisscrossed many theatre stages in Sri Lanka. While Vajira stayed committed to perfecting traditional dance, and helping Chitrasena create and develop, a new story telling tradition, through indigenous techniques, I, as a performer, was experimenting, first, with Western Dance forms, then with the less exacting Indian ones, until I found my own niche, and fulfilment, in the Bharatha Natya tradition under one of the last of the great gurus of Tanjore, T.S. Govindarajapillai.
Epitome of grace: The young Vajira
As long as I have known her, Vajira has chosen to walk in the shadow of Chitrasena, first her Guru and later her husband. Ever self-effacing, never claiming any credit for herself, she has always taken a step back allowing the larger than life Chitrasena to take all the accolades. I would unhesitatingly say that it was she, who was Chitrasena’s greatest promoter, and the powerhouse behind the Chitrasena Dance Company. Even now she is dismissive about her role in the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya story.
Simple in her ways, deeply spiritual, dance has been Vajira’s life. It has given meaning to everything she has achieved and all that she has endured. The personal sacrifices she made were many, but I know she has no regrets because the only thing that mattered was the Dance. Apart from all her achievements through the years, she has always maintained her poise and grace as a woman and mother.
Vajira has nurtured a family immersed in every aspect of Sri Lanka’s national dances. Mindful of all its traditions, even today, she presides over age-old rituals, ensuring that the third generation continues to preserve these important practices.
Her vision and dream has been that, all the effort, single-minded dedication and commitment, that Chitrasena and she have put in, to bring the ancient forms of traditional dancing to the modern stage would be fulfilled only if she could inspire and instil in her family, the need for continuance. Today at 83, she will indeed be a happy woman for she can proudly claim to be the co-creator of the First Family of Dance in Sri Lanka.
In Upeka, her much acclaimed elder daughter, we have seen the distillation of the talents of both Chitrasena and Vajira. Following family tradition, granddaughter Thaji, (Anudatta’s daughter) has set world stages ablaze, as the lead dancer of the Chitrasena Dance Company. Second daughter, Anjalika had necessarily to spend more time with her growing family, nevertheless she was a regular teacher at the Dance school and played many memorable, key supporting roles in all of the Chitrasena ballets. It is her daughter, Heshma, who today as company choreographer, has also proved her creative abilities internationally. Umi, a third granddaughter, competently handles the administration of both school and company, and when time and family permit, she too dances with the group.
Thus, the third generation has firmly taken hold of the Chitrasena Dance Company, ensuring its commitment to preserving the valuable heritage of traditional dance in Sri Lanka.
Vajira, Upeka and Anjalika continue to teach and train the young, up and coming dancers of the school, the nucleus of the future.
Her three children, Upeka, Anjalika and Anudatta are today a testament to who she is, as mother, role model and guru. They have seen what their parents have lived for and decided to integrate their own lives with theirs. Today Vajira stands strong because of her children’s decision, to make her dream a reality.
Her reward in the words of the Bible is that she has lived to see “her children’s children unto the third and fourth generation” for she now has three great grandchildren, who I am sure she is subtly training to be dancers, just as I saw her training Umi and Thaji when they could barely walk.
“Vajira, my friend, Sri Lanka owes you a great debt, so along with all of those who have seen you on this long, arduous journey, I wish you Many Happy Returns of today. You have seen fulfilment, I now wish you good health, peace, and contentment and may you continue to be ever actively involved in The Chitrasena Dance Company.”