KUALA LUMPUR, 17 August 2022 — Sutra Foundation, a bastion of traditional and contemporary arts bequeathed to Malaysia by Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, was established as a full-fledged Foundation in 2007.
Sutra Foundation has been vital in sustaining Sutra’s activities when the arts face challenging times. It continues to provide Malaysia with activities in the performing arts (Sutra Dance Theatre), exhibitions (Sutra Gallery & KamaRia Gallery) and teaching (Sutra Academy).
Immense care goes into crafting a Sutra Production – be it in terms of impeccable design input, selection of dance talent, devising sets, costumes, lighting or graphics and marrying them to the conceptual and choreographic intent to assure a flawless production.
Dancers At Large is one of Sutra’s most ambitious performances under the Sutra Dance Outreach Program that was started in 2013. Featuring nine graceful and meticulously trained female dancers in the art of Odissi (also referred to as Orissa in old literature, it is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originates in the temples of Odisha), the performance will be held under the artistic direction of Datuk Ramli Ibrahim himself; with lighting and technical direction by Sivarajah Natarajan and in collaboration with JCPR.
The Sutra Dance Outreach Program was established with the intention of offering opportunities to children and teenagers (ages six to fifteen) to benefit from formal training in dance.
The main objective is to provide the best teaching methods and early exposure to the exciting and creative world of Indian dance.
The young dancers of the Sutra Dance Outreach Program are chosen from Kajang, Rawang, Ladang Sungai Choh and Kuala Selangor – mostly outside of Kuala Lumpur, where the Dance Outreach programs are held.
The Foundation strives to reach out to the less privileged Indian communities and expose them to a more disciplined and efficient methodology of teaching dance and to the exciting and creative world of Indian dance. Through the program, Sutra hopes to develop in the youths the love for the timeless traditional values and, eventually, themselves, to be the cultural bridges for the communities and expand their talents outside of Malaysia.
According to Aiswaryaa, one of the young dancers of Sutra on Odissi, “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for hopes. We rejoice in the excitement when given the opportunity to dance, or even when learning a new dance. We came not knowing what to expect and now, through the guidance of Datuk Ramli and Sutra, we share the same passion, which is the love of dance!”
Datuk Ramli Ibrahim said, “The Sutra Dance Outreach Program has turned out to be an effective initiative to discover potential talents outside the city centres. The youths’ inherent talents would otherwise remain uncultivated and unrealized. Sutra’s investment of teaching during weekends in such areas of Kuala Selangor, Kajang, Ladang Sg Choh and Rawang for the last seven years has paid off as we can now claim to have groomed young accomplished talents from this initiative.
The young dancers now represent the next generation of Sutra dancers. They, who were once ungainly caterpillars, have metamorphosised into butterflies; gawky ducklings have finally turned into swans. We now can see an awareness, confidence and empowerment as the dancers are acknowledged for their hard work and accomplishment.
The success of this project would not have been possible without the cooperation, support and sacrifice of time and energy of dedicated parents who had worked together with us to implement the long-term investment of honing their children’s talents. Presently, several of these young dancers have started to perform with Sutra senior dancers in our overseas performances and have received favourable reviews, internationally.
Tickets are priced at RM50 per entrance (one guest); which will help Sutra to continue with its mission to discover and train more dancers under its Sutra Dance Outreach Program. The performance will be an intimate one with only 60 guests allowed per night so get your tickets now.
