Ramli Ibrahim's Sutra Dance Theatre To Perform In Four Indian Cities

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, March 30 (Bernama) -- The Sutra Dance Theatre of Malaysia led by Ramli Ibrahim will showcase its acclaimed Odissi dance production ‘Ganjam’ in four Indian cities next month. Ramli will kick off the week-long cultural tour from the Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on April 1 and perform in Gorakhpur on April 3 and in Ayodhya the next day. The Ganjam show, inspired by the cultural heritage of the Ganjam district in India's eastern state of Odisha, has received rave reviews from Indian dance critics. "This tour is special as we have been invited by the government of Uttar Pradesh to stage Sutra's recent Odissi production Ganjam. We are very excited as we have never performed in these cities before," Ramli told Bernama. "For this tour, we will bring 13 excellent Malaysian Odissi dancers, and one award-winning lighting designer," he said. The dance team will return to Kuala Lumpur after performing in Uttar Pradesh, but Ramil and his dance partner along with the lighting designer will travel to New Delhi for his April 6 show. The 64-year-old choreographer of the Indian classical dance has received top recognition for his cultural work and will be given the Padma Shri award by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind. Making the India tour "even more special is the fact that I shall be receiving the Padma Shri Award at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on April 2," Ramli said. The Sutra Dance Theatre and Ramli have staged performances in various parts of India. "To date we have performed in almost 50 cities of India," Ramli said. The Ganjam show was organised in New Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and the Ganjam district last year. It was again held at the recent Konark Festival in Odisha. "Each production of ours is not the same from the previous ones as conceptually they take on different points of embarkation. “Ganjam is a spectacular Odissi production which was the favourite during the Konark Festival held last December," Ramli said. -- BERNAMA