The show opens to one of the male dancers, Guna, barely covered with a dhothi, emerging crawling from a tangled rubbery mesh on the floor, surrounded by dancers with uncanny face masks. An eerie suspense prevailed as the opening scene unfolded, compounded by the haunting Javanese instrumental music. As he wakes up and explores his new life through dance and breathes life into his female counterpart (January Low), the sense of expectation and foreboding felt by the audience was tangible for the discerning viewer.

The focus being on the inner world meant that at times the performance was slow-going in its lack of grand, expansive moments except during a brilliantly choreographed interlude depicting a scene of war and carnage. It was vintage Ramli as he incorporated Balinese dance movements, switching its demure movements for a dance of total wild abandon with convincing abhinaya. Anandavalli’s ability to express subtle emotions and its constantly changing nature was fascinating although her exaggerated lip movements were distracting at times. A true expert in dramatisation, her clean lines and sure steps were still evident in her maiden return to the stage, five years after retirement from performances.

However, it is important to point out that the performance was meant to dwell on the inner world of emotions, its slow, brooding nature especially at the beginning merely setting the scene, drawing the audience in closer and closer before bursting forth in bouts of energetic choreography. The younger dancers generally turned in a commendable performance with those from Sutra standing out in their light-footedness and ability to carry themselves well, especially when performing contemporary movements.

For the unseasoned viewer, while the stylised aspects such as the hand-gestures and movements, strongly drawing upon Indian classical dance genres of Bharathanatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi, might have been a bit hard to grasp, there is no doubt that the subtle and raw emotions were picked up effortlessly. There is a universality in emotion that belies the notion that it is only through difference and contradiction that we can conceptualise and understand others.

Perhaps, nowhere else was it more evident than in the way Rasa Unmasked brought together different dancing traditions, further merging with an evocative eclectic score of Javanese and Indian classical music. Dig at the very root of all artistic endeavours and the essence which shines forth speaks the language of universality. To be able to recognise this is a great gift, because it means that one transcends the misplaced, puerile notion of ‘fusion’ art in today’s popular culture.

And Ramli, Anandavalli and Alex are blessed with inordinate amounts of this great artistic and visionary gift. Rasa Unmasked is not a ‘fusion’ work as it is understood today which seeks to merely juxtapose various traditions together, instead it is a piece of work which expresses the underlying unity in all Art. The performance truly strips away our masks and allow us to relish and feel our primal emotions once again.