BESIDES the Temple of Fine Arts, Ramli Ibrahim’s Sutra Foundation is the biggest name in Indian performing arts in Malaysia. The school has been a beacon and steward for Indian dance and fine arts in the country for decades.
To keep to the standards the school is known for, dancers of Sutra are put through the most rigorous of training, and upon graduation become known figures within the fraternity themselves. Rathimalar Govindarajoo, Geethika Shree, Tan Mei Mei and Divya Lee Nair were all alumni of the school.
In Sutra Foundation’s latest production, Jaya Ram, the dancers bring the story of Ramayana to life by featuring pivotal events and episodes from the Indian epic. The Vibes spoke with three of its lead dancers, Vickneshwaran, Rajavel Neelamekan and Nishah Govind Kumar on preparing for a large-scale production and the many challenges that come with it.
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TV: What role did you play and how did you approach it for Sutra’s latest staging, Jaya Ram? What preparations did you make?
Vickneshwaran (V): I played the role of Ravana in Jaya Ram. Like every other practicing Hindu, I am aware of Ravana being the antagonist in the Ramayana epic though somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that he was a well-learned scholar as well.
I have always had a problem labelling Ravana as a total personification of evil given his many talents and capabilities as a king. Hence, there was some internal conflict on how I should portray him. The more I read about Ravana, the more human he became. Instead of total embodiment of evil, I wanted to show an arrogant, brilliant man who was brought down by his own ego.
Engaging the character of Ravana as human made it easy for me to relate to him. A flawed, multi-talented human. I also started reading and listening to Shiva Tandava Stotram, which was supposedly written by Ravana for Shiva to appease him when Ravana’s fingers were stuck under the Kailash Mountain.
The Stotram has 16 syllables per line of the quatrain. Alliteration and onomatopoeia create rolling waves of resounding beauty showing one of Ravana’s many talents.
Rajavel Neelamekan (RN): I played King Janaka, Sita's father for our abhinaya piece and provided overall support for the main cast. The role allowed me to embody the emotional turbulence a father feels for their child. King Janaka was deeply protective of his daughter and would go to great lengths to find a suitor worthy of her.
On a more general note, the entire production needed a different kind of agility and required me to shed some pounds so that I am more flexible and most importantly able to maintain stamina as the crescendo peaked. Understanding and practising the steps was equally vital as the production had a folk flavour which required a more ethereal body language despite being embellished. As a team, it required a lot of focus and presence of mind especially during the larger group choreography.
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Nishah Govind Kumar (NGK): I played one of Ravana’s 10 heads which was a highlight for me. The tantric aspect of a villainous character will always test the stamina, technique, and resilience of a dancer. Apart from the intense workshops and rehearsals to meet the timeline, the preparation of the mind and spirit was essential. It has been over 12 years since I last participated in a live music production and the body has been through so much since I became a mother.
TV: What, in your view, do you think makes Jaya Ram different or special to the many productions on Ramayana?
V: I think it is different because usually the Ramayana epic is fully shown as a dance drama from beginning to end given the length of the epic itself. In Jaya Ram, we retained the repertoire of Odissi beginning in Mangalacharan until Pallavi with the introduction of major characters and snippets of scenes from the epic without fully divulging the entire story. Flashbacks, if you’d like. So, the first half is musical and a dance treat for the audience. The second half is when Sutra presents the 35-minute dance drama on Ramayana. It is concise and highlights the major events that took place in the epic.
RN: Having witnessed the work from ideation through verses scribbled on papers, tunes recorded over phones and raw steps to what it eventually metamorphised on stage will always be cherished. The ragas that the songs we set to were thoroughly thought out. The tempos were set to match the temperament of the characters within a song to introduce the characters without a change of set or costume. Personally, I find that you do not need polystyrene pillars or mountains on stage but rather it needs total internalisation to establish the characters completely.
TV: Did you always want to be a dancer? What inspired you?
RN: I grew up watching Sutra's Odissi performances as a small-town boy from Kedah. Awestruck and dumbfounded was my state each time I watched them. Sutra itself is a magnet – a hub of creativity and acknowledging artistic aspirants from all over the world.
I do struggle with my steps or comprehending them musically at times unlike my younger dance friends who grasp it almost immediately. Yet what draws me is the feeling of exercising the budding creative side of me.
NGK: My mother, who is Chinese, discovered that I was fixed to the television screen whenever a dance performance would come up. Specifically, a scene from Salangai Oli (a 1983 Indian film) when Kamal Hassan dances in front of Lord Ganesha. I was captivated. I started with Bharatanatyam and decided to explore Odissi. It has been over 20 years.
V: Not really. I started late to begin with, at the age of 23. By that time, I was already in my final year of an engineering degree. My path was set towards become an engineer. I went to Sutra’s show, Krishna Love Reinvented in 2014 by chance, and my world changed.
As an avid Indian classical music listener, I fell in love with the music of Odissi first. What initially sounded like a typical Hindustani classical music, then morphed into something entirely different. The Ukutas (rhythmic syllables) were catchy, and one cannot help but to sway with them. This music, combined with the deflection of the body and limbs into asymmetrical poses, made me fall madly in love with Odissi.
TV: Misconceptions are often rife that it is glamorous to be a dancer, especially a dancer for Sutra, with its association to Master Ramli, and the international recognition the organisation has received. How do you balance practise for massive productions like Jaya Ram with full-time careers?
V: Yes, that is true, it is not rosy at all. We are not full-time dancers at Sutra except for Geethika Sree, the principal dancer. Hence, we need to practice a lot more to retain the quality and bring out the nuances of the dance. We have rehearsals in the evening when most of us are done with our day jobs.
It can be difficult on certain days, especially after a stressful day at work to come for rehearsals and still give 100% of energy and commitment, but the passion drives us. We support each other at Sutra, often exchanging words of comforts.
Time management is also key for those who manage a day job and still perform with Sutra. We often share our schedules with the other dancers and come up with contingency plans should one of us be unable to make it for rehearsals.
RN: Sutra is about commitment and discipline. As cliché as it sounds. Every nitty gritty aspect is considered meticulously. Exhaustion and burn out is inevitable especially when juggling a full-time job, but dance has become a form of meditation for me.
NGK: The discipline it takes and the innate ability to work together like a fraternity gives the rosy outcome in productions. From the gurus, artistic directors, sound and light engineers, photographers, musicians, dancers, front and backstage managers to supportive family members, it takes a village to bring a production like Jaya Ram to life. Having patience and persistence is key.
My wish was to only tell my younger 20-year-old self that not being able to balance everything every time is okay and not to beat myself up too much. – The Vibes, October 22, 2022
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