APPRECIATION AND CELEBRATION OF MALAYSIAN ART AND ITS ARTISTS

APPRECIATION AND CELEBRATION OF

MALAYSIAN ART AND ITS ARTISTS

The Chargé d’Affaires of Malaysia, Mr. Ilango Karuppannan hosted Ramli Ibrahim and the Sutra Dance Theatre on 4 October 2008. The programme began with welcoming remarks by CDA a.i. followed by a 45 minute performance of Sutra Dance Theatre “Odissi”. The remarks can be read here.

More than 200 guests attended the performance mainly from the diplomatic corps, staffs from the US State Department, the Young and Professional Group of Washington, D.C. and members of the Malaysia-America Society. In his remarks, the Chargé d’Affaires mentioned that arts and culture can be an important tool in the promotion of intercultural understanding. He also said that one of the objectives of the Embassy was to present another face of Malaysia through the medium of arts and culture.

The guests were enthralled by the spellbinding performance of the dancers. They watched the performance with rapt silence and expressed their appreciation with a five minute standing ovation. From the feedback that was received, this was one of the best performances put up by the Embassy of Malaysia.

After the dance performance, the guests were treated to the “Malaysia Truly Asian Kitchen” programme. There were 28 varieties of Malaysian food prepared by the Malaysian restaurants in Washington, D.C. It was an occasion for the guests to mingle around. What is clear is that the programme and the food production attracted a lot of interest among Washingtonians and renewed interest to learn about Malaysia. Towards this end the Embassy intends to host other programmes in the future.