You brave traffic and get to Nrityagram expecting to see a rehearsal but what you get, if you ignore the dog sleeping in the cozy nook of the dance hall, is a full blown, pitch-perfect performance that lasts for an hour-and-a-half. Just how Odissi danseuse and choreographer Surupa Sen likes it. "As a choreographer, I rarely, if ever, watch the performance when it's being staged. I renounce all my work. I let go and tell my dancers to do whatever they want to. My only advice to them is that once on stage, they have to own their performance."Sen and her troupe of dancers, including Bijayini Satpathy, are busy preparing for their dance production, Samhara. Last staged in 2013, the 90-minute piece that had a wonderful run in the US in 2012 has been revived and is set for a long tour. After its premiere in Bengaluru on May 19 by Bhoomija, Samhara is headed to London and will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank on May 26. After that, it's a trip to Sri Lanka in July. And if things go their way , Sen and Co will have the production rolling in India, performing in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai among other Indian cities. "It is unique work and we feel that people here haven't seen enough of this," says Sen.Her enthusiasm in taking the production everywhere is understandable.There's the fact that it was nominated for the annual Bessie Awards (formally known as the New York Dance and Performance Awards) in 2012. More importantly, what makes Samhara a groundbreaking dance performance is the seamless way in which it integrates two countries, two cultures and two dance traditions -Odissi and Kandyan dance. The production is also a collaboration between Nrityagram and Sri Lanka's foremost dance company, Chitrasena Dance Company (CDC)."Samhara is a production of finding connections -it's a braid in a figurative sense that's tying two countries together," explains Sen. "Nrityagram has been associated with CDC for a long time. After seven years of knowing each other, we thought it was time to work together," she says.During the initial period, Sen admits, there were no expectations of what would stem from the collaboration. "It took us eight months (between 2011 and 2012) to create Samhara. We had musicians from Sri Lanka visit us to create the music. We sent our dancers to Colombo to learn Kandyan dance and understand it. We had workshops here where CDC's dancers would conceive pieces," says Sen.Working on the production would show the dancers the cultural similarities Odisha and Sri Lanka share. "Odisha and Sri Lanka had great trade connections. Buddhism, in all likelihood, went to Sri Lanka from Odisha. Sinhalese and Odia are much closer. As we began dancing, we began discussing these aspects as well. Eventually, the production became about having a conversation between friends, one where you communicate respectfully and also have fun," says Sen.For Heshma Wignaraja, artistic director of CDC, the collaboration with Nrityagram has changed her life."Surupa put us through challenges, she got us to think differently, she got us to stretch our capabilities," says Wignaraja, who is also the granddaughter of Chitrasena, the legendary dancer and founder of CDC. "After my grandfather died, I had to join the dance company and work with my aunt to keep it together. This production has helped us take the company out to the world," says Wignaraja.

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