Seeking to reintroduce the graceful moves of yesteryear, the talents behind the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage (ASWARA) presented yet another successful year of JAMU. This annual choreography performance event is the school’s initiative to provide further exposure to local choreographers and this year’s offering featured creations from award-winning prodigies such as Steve Goh, Suhaili Kamil, Umesh Shetty and the Dean of ASWARA’s dance faculty, Joseph Gonzales.

As a perfect finish to the four-day event, Sutra Dance Theatre signed up for their first ever collaboration with ASWARA for a night to remember. Traveling hundreds of kilometers to the Lion City, Ramli Ibrahim, founder of Sutra, returned with a special JAMU finale in the form of Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan. Hailing from India, the former is a renowned classical pianist while the latter is one of the most celebrated classical vocalists to emerge from Southern India.

Titled ‘Intoxicating Eyes’, the one-night-only performance was a musical potpourri that merged distinct classical grammars of South Indian and Western classical traditions, classical texts and a dash of contemporary amendments to pay tribute to ancient Carnatic music. For those who don’t know, Carnatic is a music style that revolves around two major elements – a melodic formula and a rhythmic cycle. Simply put, the composition is a result of adhering to the various formulas and rules within the Carnatic style.  

Keeping the set simple – a grand piano, a microphone for the vocalist and a platform for the percussionist –, the show opened with a soothing piece based on an Indian poetry written by a father to her daughter. Loosely translated as ‘Fiery Eyes’, it described his daughter’s beautiful eyes: a pair so beautiful they will set any heart burning. Only instead of that, I ended up with teary-eyes.

And for this, I have Gurucharan to thank. The song may have been sung in Indian but this is one of those rare moments when music transcends language barriers because though I did not understand the lyrics, that warm fuzzy feeling of family love the piece conveyed was unquestionable. Mind you, it is not easy to hit all the right notes in a vocal trill but somehow, Gurucharan did it.

 

The next song of the night was a tribute to a child who could no longer remember her deceased mother’s face but who could still recall every bit of motherly affection that was once showered on her. To take things up a notch, this number was accompanied by Sutra’s dancers, Guna and January Low. Every move was so intense and Low did a fantastic job at depicting the agonizing feeling of being unable to recall the beautiful curves and bumps of a departed loved one’s face. If I had to rate Low’s dance skills between one to ten, she would be a fifteen.

 

In the second half of the show, the crowd was awarded with an Improvisation that featured dancers Yunus Ismail, Liza Saad, Baizura Ghani, Faillul Adam and Ibrahim himself. Complemented with Carnatic music, the contemporary dance was a portrayal of the very gentle footsteps of Sita from the perspective of the blades of grass underneath her feet. While I found it rather difficult to fully grasp the concept of the dance, I was satisfied nonetheless. Every simple detail – from the upturned pinky fingers to the awkward yet graceful curve of the body – was given attention to and things like these are what separate good dancers from great dancers.    

 

 

Ramli Ibrahim flanked by his troupe of dancers

 

As the show progressed, the songs started to sound similar to one another but still pleasant to the ears. However, there was one thing I wished the performers took note of. They wasted no time in getting the show started but it would have been much appreciated if Srinivasan or Ibrahim took time to first explain the basics of Carnatic music because when Srinivasan later launched into songs descriptions bombarded with Carnatic jargons, they were nothing but gibberish to me.  

 

When the curtains fell, I would not say that I was suddenly inspired to buy the next classical Indian CD I see but I did walk away with a new found respect for traditional music. And judging from the demands for encore and cheers from the mostly young crowd, I would say that Indian classical music has just gotten itself a new batch of fans.