Ramli decodes the sutras of odissi

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It’s heartening to see the beautiful and breathtaking imagery he creates on stage with his dancers, costumes, lights and most importantly the dance style; Odissi, which takes a deviation from its core traditional form and makes one believe in different possibilities. His vision, his style and his energy are infectious and strike a chord instantly.
Ramli Ibrahim, artistic director of the Sutra Dance Theatre from Malaysia hardly needs any introduction. The Malaysia-based Odissi dance exponent, who has wowed the audiences all across the world, is here in the city to present a ballet Vision of Forever at the National Centre for Performing Arts today. The proceeds from the sale of tickets will be donated to the beneficiaries at Vidya, a registered not-for-profit organisation. Ramli, who trained under the late Guru Deba Prasad Das, believes that there is a strong psychic tradition between him and Odissi. Having learnt Bharatnatyam as well, Ramli believes that there was something that drew him to Odissi. “I first fell in love with the Odissi music — the first Odissi song was sung by Raghunath Panigrahi. If the music was so fabulous, the dance must be even more so I thought. And I was right,” he exclaims.
Ramli will present an Odissi repertoire from three major gurus Durga Charan Ranbir, Gajendra Kumar Panda and Deba Prasad Das. Vision of Forever will also showcase the Shaivite and Tantric traditions with one of the principle items being the Ardhanariswara. Known to choose the unconventional path, Ramli explains that his work is more of a refinement of what has been done already. “If you mean ‘choreography’ in Odissi — I don’t exactly choreograph the Odissi dances that we do. We commission the work to specific Guru who I work with. We then ‘work’ on the dance together as a solo. The dance is then ‘filtered’ and refined. It may be later worked again and rearranged as group compositions. This is what I mean by saying that in most traditional works, the work is a collective effort and process,” he explains.
For him, choreography implies a more individualistic approach when one takes responsibility of the statement made. “It implies an original way of moving whereas in traditional works the movement has been determined by the shastras. The terminology ‘choreography’ is often more suited to contemporary modern works. I choreograph many contemporary modern works, some of which are inspired by Odissi. What you will see in Vision of Forever is a traditional work with very contemporary presentation rather than a contemporary choreography of Odissi. The vocabulary used in this production is traditional Odissi,” he says.
One of the biggest risks in the field of dance is taking a slightly different approach. Very often, traditionalists and contemporary artistes argue about, what can and needs to be done. Ramli, who has taken a different approach not only towards the style, but also the costume, says that he keeps going back to history to make it seem and look as authentic as possible. “This is where history teaches us about the past so that the present can be understood and future is less clouded. History has revealed to us how Odissi was reconstructed, including its now so-called traditional costumes. It is very revealing. In effect, we are a product of our environment, conditioned by fashion and perceived by morality of the times. What is ‘authentic’ is often relative. It is sometimes better to think of authenticity as a barometer of excellence and ‘truth to the original spirit,” he says.
Ramli believes that the present age produces dancers who find it difficult to keep their focus. He discourages his students to take up dance professionally unless they are ready for that dedication and perfection. “Young dancers face a different kind of challenge. It takes time to delve deep into a difficult art form like dance or music. It requires sadhana (intense practice) not just talent and raw passion. The young nowadays want instant gratification. It is how their world is now geared at all levels. I usually discourage my students to take up dance professionally; those that follow my advice will not succeed as professional dancers anyway as they don’t have what it takes to prove me wrong,” he asserts.
However, he says that he is aware of the other challenges too that young dancers keep coming across everyday with respect to funding and solo performances. “Funding is one of the major issues of performing arts in Asia. I think India is lucky to have some infrastructure of funding though it is a pity that in some cities the audience is not cultivated to ‘pay’ to see a dance performance. Therefore, if one is not being funded, it is difficult to survive through the paying audience. Yes, it would be good if some dance companies which have proven themselves to be creative and good, to be funded so that they can concentrate more to being artistically creative rather than spending their energy on surviving. Yes, some funding structures in the west through their art councils can be good but we can also learn from the Western model of their mistakes in ‘engineering’ the arts from political and bureaucratic angles” he says.
As a dancer and director, Ramli says that he meets with a lot of challenges every day. “It is difficult to be continuously creative and to be able to renew and reinvent oneself and not just functioning in the group. It is necessary to understand one’s responsibility as an individual and/or to a tradition. Having said that I also feel the aging process is also a challenge. I guess for all, but especially for a dancer!” he says.
But all said and done, Ramli says that dance for him is a continuous and evolving journey. He says that he moves on after every performance. “The dances one performed and choreographed were all high points before one experienced it – but after one did, they somehow became part of a continuum of one’s journey. One becomes obsessed with the next work, and the next. I really don’t dwell on what I have achieved. Usually, I am just relieved that I survived a performance and choreography. The actual dancing and choreographic process are usually the interesting high points, but there are so many other things that can go wrong and will go wrong — that a performance is short of a miracle!” he says.
He also believes that dance can be inclusive and exclusive. “I guess if you look at dance from a metaphorical point of view, it is inclusive. Everything is dance; the world is the dance of Lord Shiva. But if you look at dance as an exclusive preoccupation, then you need to encounter a specific phenomenon. I don’t like to play around the word ‘pure’. Nothing is ‘pure’ or ‘absolute’ to me,” he says.
“Martha Graham, the high priestess of American Modern dance said that the dance chooses you. So, in being chosen as a vehicle of the dance, one is inevitably connected with something that has inexplicable power to move oneself. This is what being ‘excited’ by dance means to me. It is a compulsion, which is primal,” he adds.