COVER STORY OCTOBER 2022

 

THE DOYEN OF ODISSI

Datuk Ramli Ibrahim


BY HIRANMAYII MOHANAN
Photographer: Barathan Amuthan
Venue: Sutra House

Ramli Ibrahim. This name is synonymous with his precocious talent for dance. He engrosses his audience with the swift and rhythmic movements of his toned physique and he sets stages ablaze with sheer dynamism and intensity. He is a storyteller, a visionary choreographer and an awe-striking dancer.

What is your takeaway from the lockdown and the pandemic?

Actually, we did an incredible amount of activities during the lockdown. The lockdown was also something I needed very much because I was performing and travelling too much before the lockdown. It allowed me to be more reflective and to clean up my space, which is very important for all of us to do and we simplified things.

During that time, we also conducted several very important online performances which were very well executed. It was entitled Gerak Amin, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC) involving 17 different performing arts groups in Malaysia, which include music, theatre and dance. I was the artistic director of 13 out of the 17 groups. I was able to choose which group that I wanted to represent the diversity of in terms of performing arts. We did another show called Rentak Bumi, which was sponsored by ArtsFAS. So all that was done in confined spaces and five of the six series for Rentak Bumi was done in Sutra and one was done at my house in Petaling Jaya — another place full of potential. One of the series that I danced in called Tryambakham, reached over 630k viewers. So that was wonderful.

I also conducted a wonderful exhibition, one of our most successful exhibitions, featuring my works that I found in the storeroom, named ‘Arousing the Body’. It was all about the body of the dancers and how the body is the instrument of expression for the artists and therefore, it has to be the most efficient, most beautiful. I drew a lot of my dancers when other very well known artists were drawing them. We usually invite a lot of top-ranking artists to come in and draw or paint our dancers. So those were some of the main things that we did.

I did a lot of cleaning up and refurbishing some things like changing the roof of Sutra, gardening and all of that. I feel that I maximised the time and I wasn’t sort of fretting around. I found that the lockdown exposed and made us realise that humanity is primal and we need to connect to each other, as well as nature.

Could you share with us about Sutra Foundation’s major Odissi production entitled Jaya Ram and the inspiration behind it?

Jaya Ram was a very interesting, large-scale Odissi production. It required me to go to different parts of Orissa, especially the south part of Orissa to do my field work. It all started when the Uttar Pradesh government asked whether we have a repertoire on Ram or on Ramayana. I realised then that we didn’t have much on Ram, as we did a lot of work on Krishna and Shiva. It so happened that South South Orissa has a lot of villages and groups that had this concentration and are culturally rich. Orissa has been Sutra’s anthropological playground. We’re very serious about Odissi and our contribution, as well as the contribution towards the evolution of the present Odyssey repertoire system in Orissa and India itself. So, it’s important for us to engage with some of the Odyssey makers in Orissa, and I have been doing that for the last four decades with Guru Gajendra Panda whom I’d known as a young teenager when I first met him. He happened to be from Ganjam and so, during the month of Ram Navami (the birthday of Ram), we went there several times to look at two particular folk genres called Ram Leela and Ram Natakam, including the music and dance itself. And with that, we returned to Sutra and Guru Gajendra Panda worked on the repertoire not as a dance drama, but as a classical piece. It’s a very modern way of treating tradition. I really am one of those people that think that within tradition there is modernity; it doesn’t mean that tradition means a state and undynamic system, but it is ever evolving. This is why Indian traditional dances are moving forward because they’re changing. So this is a very good thing. We had about 24 dancers working on this project and many of them are very young dancers from Sutra’s outreach programme.

What is your view or stance on modernising Odissi?

Well, I think it’s not something that you look at like a 10 commandments. You have to be engaging when the opportunity arises. I like Odissi because unlike Bharatanatyam, which had the Panjara (Sanskrit word for constriction) or the paradigm of the Adavu system (structural principles) that once you get out of means you’re not Bharatanatyam, it is revolutionary. You have to know your rules before you break them. How do you change a dance movement that is tribal and folk into a movement that is classical, and yet stays within its niche? So, that’s important.

How long does it take to prepare for a production — from concept creation to performance?

It’s a very difficult question because there are many aspects involved. Sutra is the battery of creativity — we cannot go a month without doing anything. Jaya Ram happened at a time when another project called Fabricated, fell through because of funding. A production like Jaya Ram could have been executed faster if I had full time dancers. So, it’s very hard to estimate a time period because I can only have my dancers during a specific time when they are available. So, we don’t have a full time company. All of them are talented and readily absorb whatever I give them but time does not permit that they spend every day at Sutra.

You are the artistic director of Sutra Foundation’s productions. What is the process behind translating an ideation on stage?

Amazing culmination of bringing together many ideas, both artistic and administration. We have many things to consider and to go over, like letters from the Indian High Commission, letters from MoTAC, and the runners that would arrange it, passports from Orissa to Chennai, etc. You know, it’s amazing. Though we have five days of performances in KL, we have to take the performance on the road domestically, as well as to Ayodhya, Bhubaneshwar and Madhya Pradesh in India. So, there are a lot of things that come into play for a production. The two hours of performance on stage encapsulates hundreds of hours preparing that aesthetic perfection that you would see on stage. This is what arts and culture does. It gives you an aesthetic experience of a higher or higher or highest level. That takes a lot of preparation to do.

How do you explore difficult and controversial topics through dance?

Well, actually, I don’t have to be political because my presence is political. I represent the liberal kind of national cultural policy that has been touted all these time. Why is a Malay Muslim doing an Indian dance? But it also promotes Indian dance as part of the Malaysian experience. I was one of the people that say that Indian dance is part of the Malaysian experience.

What are your thoughts on the future of Odissi dance in Malaysia?

Very good because Odissi is very much at par with Bharatnatyam, from Sutra’s point of view. To do an Indian classical dance for five days in a row is not easy and we certainly walk our talk. I don’t think there is a contemporary work or Malay work that could command that. Audiences attend our performances because they want to see excellent dancing, not just jumping around, but the humanity that comes across and our ability to stir people’s imaginations without having to resort to circus tricks.

Have you or your dancers experienced the moment when the dancer becomes the dance?

I see it expanding — adding more coaches, more programmes and people feeling that there’s something for them, whether it’s online or face-to-face. I feel like there’s an opportunity for Supparetreat to grow in various places and make it regional. Our last Supparetreat was in Bali, right before the world shut down. So, we’re planning another retreat this year and I’m excited about that because it’s really coming together. At first, we focussed on women and recently I have been doing a lot more integrated stuff with both men and women. Supparetreat is a really great way to introduce more men to look under their hood and introspect.

You were conferred the Padma Shri (India’s fourth highest civilian honour) award by the Government of India in 2018. Walk us through the emotions and thoughts of receiving this honour.

Actually I have also been awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards by Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th president of India. This is an award that I really value because it’s given by artists. I have to be valued by my colleagues in India, and it’s not an easy place to have received this award. Both the Padma Shri award and the Sangeet Natak Award was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi; it was quite an emotional experience for me.

Besides Jaya Ram, are there any other exciting projects that are in Sutra Foundation’s pipeline?

We recently had an exhibition called ‘Guardian Spirits’ by Helen Brahma, an Indian artist from Orissa. Her featured works incorporated Sambalpuri textiles in her painting to represent her identity as an Odisha woman.

Besides dancing, what do you do to stay limber and agile?

It’s easy to give an impression that I live a glamorous life, not knowing that last night, I was shouting at my kids for losing their concentration during rehearsals. Actually, we live a very austere life. We are what Martha Graham describes as Clouds of the Gods — we are very strict. I lead a very disciplined life and in my position, I feel I need to keep promoting and giving encouragement to many of my friends and colleagues in the arts, as much as possible. I look after myself quite well and privileged enough to travel the world. But the same opportunity is not yet available for my students so I feel it’s my destiny to look after them and the animals at Sutra. That keeps me on my toes and young. It also keeps those around me also young.

At this stage in life, having seen the highest highs, what are your plans for the future?

I have to design my next reincarnation (laughs). I haven’t a clue actually. I’m just going with the flow. It’s such a privilege for me to do what I do at my age and I don’t want to compete with my dancers. I’m using my brain on many other things. When you’re older, you know exactly how things need to be done to make it presentable. I think there’s a practice of Sahaja Yoga in this aspect, that you’re going with the flow.

As a learned man who’s also immersed in Indian culture, what is your understanding of the Festival of Lights or Deepavali?

It’s synchronicity that we’re doing Jaya Ram and Deepavali is an embodiment of an important myth of triumph of good over evil – Ram has defeated Ravana and returns to Ayodhya (where we will be performing Jaya Ram after Deepavali). It’s a revolving theme that keeps coming to my life. What I always feel wonderful about Deepavali and the Indian community is that it knows how myths can regenerate and you’re reminded that there’s something larger than life linked to it. So, they do it through metaphor. Malays have also perfected this through the myth of Mak Yong. The Indian myth always looks at the balance of good and evil. You can’t completely squash the evil but learn to balance it. Evil is present within us too and you have to know how to control it, you can’t be perfect.

What are your plans for Deepavali this year?

I don’t know, actually. My friend from Singapore will be flying in and cooking up a storm.

What are some of your favourite Indian dishes that you relish in?

I have so many. There are so many Indian restaurants everywhere — there are a plethora of dishes to choose from. I usually relish in both North and South Indian dishes, from the aloo to the sambar. There are so many that I don’t have a favourite.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram