Sutra Dance Foundation Presents "Triple Frontiers" at PJ Civic Centre

The country’s most renowned classical Indian dance guru and the Sutra Dance Foundation will be performing for the first time in more than 25 years at the PJ Civic Centre (PJCC).

All plans for the show, which was scheduled to take place in March 2020, were postponed when the country went into its first lockdown last year. Then, when the show was forced to take a backseat, many of those who were looking forward to the opening night in October 2020 were left disappointed once more.

Now that live events are making a comeback, Ramli and his dancers are eager to enthral the audience and breathe new life into this dance form.

They are looking forward to connecting with Klang Valley audience in its upcoming performances after a successful ‘world premiere’ which took place in Seremban and Melaka two weeks ago.

On April 9th, at 8pm, Triple Frontiers, an ode to Odissi, will be staged with a Gala Fundraising Nite. Invitations are available via donations of RM50, RM80, or RM150. Following that, on the 10th and 11th of April, two nights of performances will be held, with invitations by donations of RM40 or RM60.

Triple Frontiers pays tribute to three women Odissi dancemakers – Sujata Mishra, Parwati Dutta, and Meera Das. These three women’s works, who come from a variety of backgrounds, are clearly translated into their choreography, which tells stories through intense creativity in expression and elaborate elucidation of hand and foot movements.

Ram — Picture credit: Indulge The New Indian Express

Sujata, an Odissi from the Debaprasad School, stands out for her unique musical taste. Parwati, a dancer and scholar from the Delhi School, is a very erudite dancer and scholar who approaches her work with a strong musical approach. Meera, on the other hand, is a skilled dancer with a lot of experience. Her individualistic approach, which is firmly rooted in Kelubabu tradition, exemplifies the Kelucharan School.

Ramli Ibrahim and Sutra dancers GANJAM i Photo by S. Magendran 2017 — Picture credit: Sambad English

These three women, who began their dance training decades ago with Pankaj Charan, Kelucharan Mahapatra, and Debaprasad Das, are now choreographers in their own rights, with their own dance schools.

Those who attend the show can expect a one-of-a-kind performance. Triple Frontiers is set up as a triple bill, with two intermissions for dancers to change into different costumes and set the mood for each segment of the guru/dance-makers.

Datuk Ramli Ibrahim proudly exclaims;

This time, there is more input from the young dancers of Sutra especially those from our Dance Outreach program (Kajang, Rawang & Ladang Sg Choh) which we started more than 7 years ago. The little ones have now grown into teenagers, and are poised and confident dancers. They are holding the fort now and audiences may like to start identifying who and which talent they will be watching in the years to come.

Triple Frontiers, which has been postponed twice, will finally be completed. In this third attempt, Ramli can finally breathe a sigh of relief after dealing with date changes, postponements, cancellations, changing dancers, recreating publicity campaigns, and appeasing irate patrons.