Dear Friends,
Jaya Ram, Sutra Foundation’s Odissi production in association with Tin Alley, is slated to be staged in Bukit Merah Wood Factory, Lahat (Perak) for 2 performances, 9 & 10 Dec (Sat & Sun, 7.30pm), 2023.
Jaya Ram is an ArtsFas initiative of Yayasan Hasanah to bring the performing arts to audiences outside city centres and at the same time city audiences to away from the run of the mill venues.
Jaya Ram’s recent Japan tour last October has came out a winner. This large scale Malaysia-India dance collaboration has been winning accolades wherever it was staged: the three major dance festivals in India (Konark, Delhi International Arts Festival, Khajuraho), Singapore Esplanade and of course several rounds in Malaysia, where it had its first premiere in September 2022 in Kuala Lumpur.
Jaya Ram, a collaboration between Guru Gajendra Kumar Panda (Tridhara, Bhubaneswar) and Datuk Ramli Ibrahim (Sutra, Malaysia) pays homage to Rama, Hero of the Ramayana. The work takes inspiration from the folk traditions of South Odisha, injecting earthy energies of folk music and dance vocabulary of the culture-rich South Odisha, into the Odissi repertoire.
Jaya Ram is not a dance-drama. On the other hand, it should be viewed as a collage of energies where recognisable Ramayana characters make familiar entrances & exits, referencing episodic highlights of the Ramayana.
Please have a look-out to the Lec-Dem by Datuk Ramli Ibrahim on The Making of Jaya Ram.
Sutra Foundation in association with Tin Alley is excited to be performing in this unusual venue of the Bukit Merah Wood Factory which has been a popular tourist eatery hotspot of Ipoh-Mari locals.
This will be a potentially exciting run for Jaya Ram whereby this grand Odissi production will once again return to its folkish roots and provenance, to be savoured in a rustic wood factory setting.
Ipoh audience, especially, should expect something totally different from the usual proscenium stage performance and should make this outing with its atmospheric Wood Factory restaurant, a special weekend trip for the whole family.
Sutra Foundation
