To say that celebrated dancer Ramli Ibrahim has been dancing all his life is not an exaggeration. “I have been dancing since childhood,” smiles Ramli Ibrahim while in Hyderabad. This legendary dancer and choreographer from Malaysia talks about his fascination for Indian dance forms Bharatanatyam and Odissi. As the chairman and founder of Sutra Foundation in Malyasia, he has been spearheading the dance movement and stimulating the creative spirit of the students.
As he goes back and forth talking about his growing up years in Malaysia, he reveals how dance has been the only thing that ever mattered in his life.
“As a child I would be always be dancing. My mother could not stop me. I did not have any inhibitions and would do free style dancing in front of my mother’s friends,” he recalls. He joined Military College in Malaysia to get a degree as per his parents’ wishes. “It was a society which gave importance to industrial and technical skills and hence science was given preference. Art was a luxury then,” he recollects. When he went to Australia, he rediscovered ballet and went dancing again. He returned to Malaysia in 1983 and a dancer’s life unfolded. “One should always think about what one really wants out of life. I wanted dance,” he states. As an ‘admirer of everything in India’, he discovered his passion for Bharatanatyam and Odissi and has been a regular at the dance festivals. Sutra Foundation as a bastion of traditional and contemporary arts has been contributing to the Malaysian arts scene. “When one says modern dance, one thinks of Bollywood or western dance. Modern dance is a serious art and uses indigenous vocabulary, symbols and music,” he observes.
He has lost count of the number of performances he has given. “I must have visited 100 cities,” he says with a smile. However his smile fades when he talks about the young dancers of today. “When I look at young dancers, I feel irritated,” he says and adds, “They are eager to dance for a different reason. They want to measure success with money. I measure my success with expressions. I tell students dance is not a means to get something. Dance will look after you.”
This year, he is looking forward to the new production, ‘Krishna, Love Re-invented’, which premiered in Chennai; now the team will be going to the US. Ramli will also be participating in the annual 20th Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, 2014 Award festival to be held from September 5-9 in Bhuvaneshwar.
Comparing Odissi and Bharatanatyam, Ramli says, “While one has a lyrical approach, the other has sharper body movements. On a lighter note, he says, “Thank god, the two forms are different.” He feels Odissi has some influence of the Telangana region. “In Ganjam district in Orissa, the music has a lot of Telangana influence.
These boundaries are made by men. Art has no boundary.”
Ramli is disappointed at the casual attitude of some young dancers. “Dance is a calling. It is a gift. If you take it for granted, the gift will curse you. I tell my students, ‘The personal relations will not last. Your children may forsake you. But if you believe in art, it will get you through. I believe in Martha Graham’s quote: ‘You cannot choose dance. Dance chooses you.” Finally, he beams as he talks about how he is looking forward for his holiday planned in 2016!
