Odissi, trend and tradition
RUPA SRIKANTH
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There is enough space for every style of dance when Ramli Ibrahim takes the stage.
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TALENTED GROUP: Ramli Ibrahim and his disciples.
``Spellbound" delivered all that it promised — spellbinding artistry from Ramli Ibrahim and his dance troupe from the Sutra Dance Theatre, Kuala Lampur. Presented by the Forum Art Gallery, Chennai, ``Spellbound" had two components, one dedicated to traditional Odissi, and the other to contemporary dance.
Ramli Ibrahim, founder and artistic-director of the dance company, is considered one of the foremost male Odissi dancers today. It is evident in the beauty of his body language. Ramli's passion for dance has led him to also master ballet, the Martha Graham modern dance style and Bharatanatyam. And there is space enough for each style in his repertoire, the correctness of a squared chauka never coming in the way of a half-seated plie or vice-versa. His leaps in a ballet composition are as graceful and agile as those of a younger dancer, even as the fast-paced Tandav or the light hearted Raas Leela, is as precise. An inner sensitivity tempers Ramli's technique and explains the absence of hierarchy in the group compositions.
Ramli has conveyed this earnestness to the talented group comprising his students namely, Anushya Nair, Tan Mei Mei, Nishah Devi Govind, Divya Nair, Sivagamavalli Selvarajan and guest artist, Rahul Acharya, who is a disciple of Guru Durga Charan Ranbir.
Proficiency is the order of the day with this well-rehearsed group, and the credit to the Guru is all the more for having nurtured such passion on foreign soil.
Traditional
The traditional segment with a mixed bag of offerings steered clear of the expected Gita Govinda repertoire. Some like the Ashta Sambhu and Krishna Tandava were old compositions of Ramli's teacher, Guru Deba Prasad Das, while the others were compositions of Guru Durga Charan Ranbir. Each has been reworked by Ramli and hence carries an international fragrance that permits new sensibilities without taking away from its authenticity.
The Pallavi in raag Mukhari for example, stuck to the pure nritta structure while introducing a new concept of gender of the raag. This lent itself to different interpretations of the lone male dancer that in one moment resembled Shiva and in another like Krishna. Likewise, the Krishna Tandava used the maya theory to create many visions of the dark-hued cowherd. Here, the sabda-swara-patha way of reciting the poetry typical to the Deba Prasad school, as well as the fluidity in the friezes were also striking.
The finale, Aditya Archana, was an explosion of imagination, rhythm and movement, performed in perfect synchrony. The beautiful Odissi music was composed by Sukanta Kumar Kundu and Ram Hari Das.
Modern
Along with the dancing figures added on to the existing backdrop by artist A. V. Ilango, the viewers were taken on an unusual journey the next evening.
It began with the intriguing musical collaboration of Aruna Sairam and Dominique Villard who juxtaposed Carnatic music with medieval European liturgical music. The arresting visual interpretation included the Mother Goddess, Jesus and a frieze of Michelangelo's Pieta.
The imagery of Zakir Hussain's Sacred Geometry was a dialogue between the angularities of Bharatanatyam and the curves of Odissi, with gender-specific connotations. An adaptation of the Russian ballet dancer Nijinsky's choreography, `L'apre Midi D'une Faune' and Ravel's operatic `Sheherazade,' were stunning presentations, both western-movement oriented, with a liberal use of contact improvisation. If the costumes were uninspiring on the first day, they more than made up in the contemporary segment. It was back to the basics with the Sankarabarnam Pallavi. ``Spellbound" had turned a full circle.
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