She has now embraced the role of sape player, bringing Sarawak's traditional instrument to global audiences - a passion she first discovered during her final-year dance project in 2012.

I’ve also represented the school in a few inter-school sape competitions and Sarawak Tourism Board’s cultural event, Tenun 2019, ” says Ivana over the phone from Kuching recently.

It falls within the same family of instruments as its more famous cousin, the sape from neighbouring Sarawak state. But modernisation pried attention away from the once ubiquitous instrument ...

"For my project, I chose to present four traditional dances from Sarawak’s culture, one of which was the Orang Ulu dance that features the sape as its musical accompaniment. "Each night ...