AN ODISSI ALLURE, 2014

Supported by: Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Keseniaan Negara, Mr. Hesmel Faznee bin Ahmad Faisal

After Rasa Odissi which was my first attempt to create a solo dance production invited by Chong Keat Aun to perform at his Art House, I just instinctively get ideas when I sleep or when I’m walking or just when I’m not consciously thinking seeing visuals in my mind or imagining visuals in front of me as I always am throughout 365 days a year. Or sometimes it just happens suddenly literally a spark and I see visuals in my mind and it’s a compelling urge and feeling to just do it. I have to get it out and do it. And that’s just that.

But this time rather then an artistic spark first, I wanted to collaborate with other artistes, which then organically became the creative idea of what I wanted to do. But I knew I wanted to create a piece with a musician of my second favourite instrument which is the percussions and about a ‘Women Goddesses’ as a theme in a Contemporary presentation. I decided I wanted to create a show working with 2 other Odissi dancers I met in India during the International Odissi festival in 2011 and recalling a man I met at a friend’s daughter’s birth celebration, that looked very familiar but I did not know he was a musician and just had to work with him and then a GuZheng player whom I met at my Rasa Odissi show that helped me. And so that is how the show was born based on instinct, most of the time.

Taissia Shulpulnikova from Moscow, Russia and Akane Hoshino from Tokyo, Japan agreed and came to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a week to rehearse and create a finale contemporary piece inspired by Odissi and Theban Arumugam the most amazing mridangam player just knew what I wanted and he played exactly to my dreams and Jeffrey Leong just improvised and went with the flow. It was amazing! Really!

It was my first production at The KuAsh Theatre and it was totally insane. I do not know how I did it. It was like what Taissia said, one of the nights I was so packed and did not realise how much I had been doing that when I closed my eyes to sleep for a second and blinked, it was the next morning. But I just wasn’t tired. I could not believe it. But we did it. The whole show happened. From production, to marketing, to getting the textile for the costume, to designing, to choreographing, to rehearsals, to getting the theatre ready, to announcements, to hanging the cloth set design, to creating a prop, driving back and forth, going for meetings to get funding, paying the hotel, theatre and going out for meals and seeing a bit of KL, it happened. Guns blazing it did.

Thank you Taissia, Akane, Theban, Jeffrey, Yvonne, Alena, Veron and everyone front of house and backstage that helped, mom, dad and sis!