Stirring Odissi@KLPac: A review

On 10 June, as part of the Stirring Odissi 2008 show, Sutra Dance Theatre (Malaysia) and Orissa Dance Academy (India) presented one of the newer developments of Odissi – group performances.

The most striking thing about Odissi is the gracefulness of each movement. The body language of fluid upper body movements is balanced with firm footwork and expressive faces. As the music may not be understood by all, a brief introduction is given before each dance. The portrayals of seduction, youthfulness, vivacity, petulance - even the movements of a lady combing her hair, or beauty of gods - are easy to read. Dress all this up in beautiful costumes, and we have a winner for epic dance storytelling.

The question: How would both reputable dance companies interpret this traditionally solo dance meant for intimate spaces, into a group performance on the much larger Pentas 1 stage in KLPac? The loud, collective tinkling of ankle bells from the many dancers moving about backstage in preparation acted like a drumroll for the night.

Sutra Dance Theatre performed first, and went for strength in numbers. The dances were grandly choreographed such that dancers carved out nicely timed, intricate patterns across the stage. Sutra’s dances also incorporated some steps that seemed derived from yoga asanas. The likes of more experienced dancers like Ramli Ibrahim, January Low and Guna lived up to expectations. In contrast, using many other ensemble dancers does comes at a cost - a line of synchronicity is easily marred by someone who doesn’t measure up, and Sutra’s less experienced dancers occasionally stood out for the wrong reasons. Still, it was a visually impressive performance that earned the Sutra dancers a standing ovation.

Orissa Dance Academy used a small group of experienced dancers and more technical choreography. In comparison with Sutra, the focus was more on individual dancers who performed well, though Sutra’s numbers allowed more complexity in using stage space. Orissa’s use of video projections of flowers, nature and pilgrimage footage to accompany certain scenarios seemed misplaced (and rather cheesy), but new media is a reasonable, though not always visionary, exploration of new elements to include in dance.

Overall, it was a night of worthwhile entertainment. In both cases, direct interaction between dancers acting out scenes seemed slightly awkward - the Odissi is currently still best as a solo expression, but  group performances is young in the dance tradition of Odissi, and the night showed an accurate insight into the potential of group performances to complement Odissi’s rich history.

Text & Photos Lainie Yeoh