Ramli Ibrahim's Sutra Foundation To Perform At India Dance Festival

NEW DELHI, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- A troupe led by Odissi classical dance exponent Ramli Ibrahim will perform this week at the Konark festival in eastern India. The entourage from Malaysian dance theatre Sutra Foundation includes 23 artistes. They will present Sutra's new Odissi production "Jaya Ram" on Thursday at the Sun Temple of Konark in Odisha state. Sutra Foundation's last performance at the annual dance festival was in 2017 when it presented the acclaimed show "Ganjam." Ramli expects "Jaya Ram" to receive a similar response in India. He calls Sutra's latest creation a new "cultural link" in the 65th year of Malaysia-India diplomatic relations. He has collaborated with Indian Odissi expert Gajendra Kumar Panda. "Gajendra and I spent time in south Odisha researching on the folk dance and music traditions which we incorporated into the 'traditional' Odissi repertoire. This requires us to re-conceptualise both the Odissi vocabulary and music elements," Ramli told Bernama. Sutra Foundation will end the year with dance performances on December 29 and 30 at the Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF). "It is Sutra's first participation in DIAF. For this festival, we will be bringing a total of 15 artistes," Ramli said. Unlike in Konark, where Sutra is performing to live music accompaniment, the artistes will be performing to recorded music at the Delhi event. "The cost of flying artistes is so exorbitant that it is almost impossible to have the luxury of live music in Delhi," he said. -- BERNAMA