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Unusual approach
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Ramli Ibrahim’s team was impressive, but their school of Odissi was not all that graceful
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Photo: Murali Kumar K.
DIFFERENT The dances resembled a dance drama, in their group compositions and choreography
Odissi is one classical dance form that can simply entice the audience with its sensuous movements, taking you into the beautiful world of sculptures back in Orissa. So when Ramli Ibrahim and his Sutra Dance Theatre from Malaysia presented their Odis
si recital, it was natural for Ambedkar Bhavan to be packed. It was a typical classical repertoire that was presented, but with a contemporary name, Spellbound.
Though the event started off on dot, the evening dragged on with long announcements, making the audience restless. The late comers, blissfully unaware of causing inconvenience to the audience, only added to the woes.
Then it was time for Ramli to come on stage and cast his spell. The dancers started off with the Mangala Caranam, homage to goddess Saraswati. This was followed by a pallavi and then came the Asta Sambhu (depicting the qualities of lord Shiva) and “Kadamba Bane Bangsi” (Radha’s yearning for Krishna).
The dancers were petite and had the perfect body line. Their tribhangis and chowkas were perfect and their agility was remarkable. The choreography in the first recital was good. What was disappointing was that the dances that followed resembled a dance drama, in its group compositions and choreography.
Ramli is trained by Durga Charan Das and the late Deba Prasad Das. Their style is unlike the school of Kelucharan Mohapatra. “Durga Charan Das focuses more on the tandava aspect of Odissi, there is a tantric quality to his dance,” said Ramli. So, every item started off with a fast paced rhythm, giving the dancers no chance to work on their torso movement or the lasya, which is the core of Odissi dance.
But the last item Aditya Acharna (an invocation of the sun god), was well presented. The formation of the sun god in his chariot was impressive.
The dancers too moved around the stage without disturbing the formation and their synchronisation for this one was impressive.
But what again went wrong here was the image of the sun that was created by using lighting that kept interrupting the whole choreography.
And for me, grown on watching the likes of Kelucharan Mohapatra, Protima Bedi and Sanjukta Panigrahi, it was difficult to see Odissi in a “tandava” avatar.
For, the school of Kelu babu presents this form with slow and sensual movement in the beginning, with ample focus on the torso movement, which gradually builds up in the tempo as the dance progresses.
The event was organised as a fund-raising programme for the mentally challenged people by the Amber Valley Residential School, Chikmagalur.
Ramli danced along with Guna, Revathi, Shantona, Tan Mei Mei, Sivagama Valli and Divya Nair. The lighting by Sivarajah Natarajan was brilliant in certain recitals and added well to the silhouettes of the dancers.
Spellbound was choreographed by Durga Charan Das and was rearranged for group compositions by Ramli.
SHILPA SEBASTIAN R.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
