Classical Indian dance, foreign dancers

The first International Dance Festival is on in Delhi from August 2 to 4. The festival brings together the cream of foreign dance talents trained in Indian classical dance -- be it Odissi, Kathak, Bharatna-tyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniya-ttam, or Kathakali. The artistes come from countries as diverse as Malaysia, Indonesia, Germany, Russia, China, Mauritius and South Africa .
The festival kick started with an Odissi performance by Ramli Ibrahim and January Low who exemplify the perfect guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship though at 55 plus Ramli is considerably older.
Ramli, is an internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Sutra Dance Theatre, Malaysia's dance company. Ramli and January displayed tremendous agility and chemistry.

It was impossible to fault any of their dance pieces ranging from the invocatory “Mangala Charanam” to “Saberi Pallavi” to “Navara-sa”, “Ardhana-reswara” to “Moksha”. Particularly fascinating was “Navarasa”, where the dancers beautifully unfolded the nine rasa or emotions of erotic love, heroism, compassion, wonder, humour, terror, disgust, anger and serenity. Likewise, “Saberi Pallavi” in “Raga Saberi”, gave the dancers an opportunity to delight the captive audience with the sculpturesque poses and lyrical qualities for which Odissi is famed.
The Odissi dancers were followed up by the delicately framed Aila El-Edross, Kathak danseuse from Indonesia. Trained in Kathak both in Jakarta and New Delhi, her solo, duet and group performances at international dances festivals both in India and Indonesia are acclaimed. She began with a solo, the traditional innovation dance, a prayer to Lord Shiva, and later went on to showcase other short pieces.
The two remaining days will see performances by Nhlanhla Vincent Zwane, Bharatnatyam dancer from South Africa; Kuchipudi dancer Irene Strakhov-enko; Mohiniattam dancer from Germany Anne Dietrich. The next day will showcase performances by Kathak dancer Zhang Jinghui (China); Kuchipudi by Dayashree Pentiah Appadoo (Mauritius) and finally Kathakali dancer Isa Jacobi (Germany).
The programme has been organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).