Offbeat, off key
The Odissi recital by the dance troupe from the Sutra Dance Theatre, Kuala Lumpur, departed from tradition.
MALAY MOVES The dance troupe from Kuala Lumpur.
The name Spellbound turned out to be apt in more ways than one. Apart from the artistry of Odissi dancer Ramli Ibrahim and his dance troupe from the Sutra Dance Theatre, Kuala Lumpur. The liberties the dancer took with Odissi tradition made the connoisseurs and dancers gasp in horror. Perhaps the deviations would have been okay had Ramli not called the first evening's programme traditional Odissi.
The traditional segment was a mixed bag of invocation to Goddess Saraswati as mangalacharan, Mukhari pallavi, Ashta Sambhu an abhinaya piece dedicated to the eight-fold forms of Lord Shiva, Krishna Tandava, Ashta nayika, a well-known piece depicting nayikas or heroines in eight dramatic situations and finally Aditya Archana, a paean to the Sun god.
While the dance compositions were original creations of Ramli's teacher the late Guru Deba Prasad Das and his star disciple Guru Durga Charan Ranbir, each has been reworked by Ramli for group compositions thus distorting the choreographic authenticity. Though with other dancers in the group the production was a visual spectacle the neatness and compactness of the original choreography became casualties that rattled Odissi dancers and disciples of Guru Deba Prasad to whom ironically this programme was a homage.
"I dislike such patchwork. Ramli should not have tampered with the original beauties. Let him come up with his own," said Italian Odissi dancer Ileana Citaristi. Many like Manjushri a disciple of Guru Ranbir echoed her sentiments.
In the second evening the programme - 2 of Spellbound Ramli again reworked the famous choreography Shankarabharana pallavi of the late Guru Pankaj Charan Das to its detriment although he called the second programme contemporary dance that primarily comprised an adaptation of the Russian ballet dancer Nijinsky's choreography L'apre Midi D'une Faune and Ravel's operatic Sheherazade both western-movement oriented, with a liberal use of Odissi improvisation.
But what shocked everybody was the liberty Ramli took with Odissi costume. Eminent scholar of Odissi dance and president of Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi D N Patnaik also vented his reservations and said that nothing other than a sari has ever been approved by any Guru ever! Since the three Akademis, Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi, Orissa Sahitya Akademi and Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi, organised the Ramli show, they are on the mat for promoting such shows that offended Odissi sensibilities.
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