Kumbi Kathawa (Ant Story) was conceived by Anjalika, Chitrasena and Vajira’s daughter. She was inspired by a Russian children’s story. The ballet is choreographed and directed by Anjalika and Mahesh, who has also designed the amazing costumes and stage sets. As with any production from the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya, this ballet has been in development for many years, and has been carefully nurtured to reach a level of excellence, in keeping with the standards of the Kalayathanaya.

Our total budget for the production is around Rs. 3 million. It is a cost that we cannot cover on our own. The tepid response from those we have approached thus far for funding has left us in a very difficult position since we are far short of what we require.

We require your help.

An overview of the many ways in which you can support us with your generosity is available through a Powerpoint presentation that can be viewed online and downloaded.

Kumbi Kathawa also provides a unique opportunity to showcase products or services with a particular appeal to children and families. All funds raised from the Kumbi Kathawa will go towards the rebuilding of the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya national dance academy.

For further details and to get in touch with us, please contact:

Upeka Chitrasena
11A School Lane
Nawala

Home: +94-11-2864671
Email: cedo@sltnet.lk

or

Heshma Wignaraja
99 Horton Place
Colombo 7.

Office: +94-11-2691980
Email: cvdance@gmail.com

Help us achieve the dream of creating a national dance academy to inspire many more generations to come with the gift of dance and theatre that Chitrasena, our father and guru, instilled in us.

We thank you for your support,

Best regards,

Heshma / Upeka

Editors note: Writing on Chitrasena and his art, I noted in an article titled Chitrasena, Art and Politics:

We can only hope that the lessons of [Chitrasena's] art, his life and his legacy will fertilise our own private and communal trysts with reconciling the past to the urgent and necessary construction of a more peaceful Sri Lanka. Written this way, we are all artists, using interplays of social and political relationships to create ways through which we can begin to imagine peace.

The Kalayathanaya’s importance in this regard cannot be underestimated. If its first avatar gave expression to a young nation’s voice in song, the new edifice must give strength to a new generation of artistes desirous of a Sri Lanka that celebrates cultural and artistic production in a context of peace.

This then, is Chitrasena’s lasting legacy that inspires us all – to see in ourselves the creativity to transcend cycles of violence and give birth instead to voices of peace.

448 have read this this article so far. You may also find these articles interesting:

• In conversation with the Chitrasena - Vajira Dance Foundation on theatre in Sri Lanka VOR Radio interviews Heshma (grand-daughter of Chitrasena and Vajira) and Rukshana, a senior dancer at the Chitrasena - Vajira Dance Foundation. The conversation deals with Kumbi Kathawa (Ant Story) - a children’s ballet - the challenges facing the Foundation and the state of theatre in Sri Lanka in general. Please read the related article here and... groundviews, August 23, 2007
• A brief glimpse of “Kumbi Kathawa” (Ant Story) “We give you something that is very traditional and something that at the same time is not. This is discipline. You can’t do this without thinking” Chitrasena, quoted in Bandula Jawayawardhana’s essay “The Meaning of Chitrasena” published in Nŗtya PÅ«jā: A Tribute to Chitrasena 50 years in the dance To witness first and then attempt to write... Sanjana, August 23, 2007