Sardono cherishes his good luck<\/p>\n
====================
\nTantri Yuliandini
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta
\n---------------------<\/p>\n
Some say success is made out of 90 percent hard work and 10
\npercent talent, but famed Indonesian dancer and choreographer
\nSardono Waluyo Kusumo say luck has plenty to do with his
\nsuccess.<\/p>\n
"To tell you the truth I was very lucky. There were probably a
\nlot of other people better than me, I was just lucky," the 57-
\nyear-old said in an interview recently.<\/p>\n
Sardono, or Mas Don as he is affectionately known, said he was
\nlucky to have the patronage of former Jakarta governor Ali
\nSadikin who helped him become what he is today -- one of
\nIndonesia's most renowned and respected dancers.<\/p>\n
"Ali Sadikin could respond to (the artists') needs. Today's
\nartists aren't so lucky (to have such patronage)," he said.<\/p>\n
One of the former governor's most valuable contributions to
\nthe Jakarta art scene, according to Mas Don, was the
\nestablishment of Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) arts center in Cikini
\nRaya, Central Jakarta and the Jakarta Board of Arts (Dewan
\nKesenian Jakarta) in 1968.<\/p>\n
"For myself, if it wasn't for Taman Ismail Marzuki I wouldn't
\nbe able to dedicate fully (to my work). It was because that every
\ntime I create something there was an audience and feedback,
\nwhether insulting or praising. They are what motivated me (to
\ncreate)," he recalled.<\/p>\n
Mas Don remembered when TIM was the center of arts and culture
\nin Indonesia, "whatever (art development) happened in the
\nregions, they all made their way to TIM. Choreographers from
\nBali, Surakarta in Central Java, Bandung, Makassar, Irian
\n(Papua), all came, performed and we all shared (our knowledge).
\nWe examined each other's works and we interacted".<\/p>\n
Art is about being in the middle of society, he said, how an
\nartist could express his work in the middle of society. Being in
\ntouch with society was the way for arts to thrive without losing
\ntouch with its surroundings, he added. On the other hand, society
\nwould not be able realize the importance of arts in their lives
\nwhen opportunities for performances and art discussions are
\nlimited.<\/p>\n
"This need other people who aren't artists. It needs
\nproducers, critics and the media. I see there are a lot of
\nartists around but they don't interact with society because there
\nare no venues to do it. There are no public spaces for society to
\nmeet the artists' work," Mas Don said.<\/p>\n
"I survived because I expanded my work beyond Indonesia and I
\nalready have a long track record. Before that, I was fortunate, I
\nworked at TIM, I was given the facility," he said, explaining
\nthat it was only because of his experiences at TIM that he was
\n"strong" enough to take on the international community.<\/p>\n
Born in Surakarta, Central Java, on March 6, 1945, Mas Don was
\nintroduced into the world of Javanese dance at the age of 11 by
\nhis Pencak Silat (traditional martial arts) teacher R. Ng.
\nKridosoekatgo - a Silat expert who was in service at the
\nSurakarta palace at the time.<\/p>\n
"In his opinion dance is a higher form of Silat. If you learn
\nSilat, you will be able to paralyze the attack of an enemy. With
\ndance, you can paralyze your aggressive intentions before the
\nattack has chanced to appear," he said in an article published
\nover the Internet titled Hanuman, Tarzan, Pithecanthropus Erectus
\n(2001).<\/p>\n
Mas Don's early dance teachers included R.Ng. Atmokesowo who
\ntaught him the ropes and the refined dance styles of the
\nclassical Javanese dances, and R.Ng. Wignyo Hambekso who taught
\nhim to be free with his movements and expressions.<\/p>\n
His golden days as a classical Javanese dancer came in the
\n1960s with roles such as Rama, Hanuman, and Rahwana in the
\nRamayana epic performed with Sendratari Ramayana Prambanan, then
\nappointed to perform with the government troupe to the New York
\nWorld Fair in 1964.<\/p>\n
Explorations beyond the world of the classical Javanese dance
\nresulted from his interaction with international dancers at the
\nWorld Fair, like the Jean Erdman Theater of Dance in New York,
\nwhich in his own words, Mas Don made some "strange experiments".<\/p>\n
But these did not go unnoticed. In 1968 he became the youngest
\nmember of the newly established Jakarta Board of Arts.<\/p>\n
"The Jakarta Board of Arts was amazing at the time. They saw
\nmy work in Surakarta and wrote a letter asking me to become one
\nof its board of directors. They gave me a Jakarta ID card and
\ntold me to move to Jakarta and I was only 23 years old, can you
\nimagine," Mas Don said.<\/p>\n
His innovation included the Samgita Pancasona (1969-1970),
\nwhich the late scholar Umar Kayam called the "Indonesian
\ncontemporary dance", but received heavy criticism from the
\ntraditional Javanese public in Surakarta. Indeed, Mas Don does
\nnot see the dance as a static art too ingrained in its own
\ntradition to expand, but as a writhing, wriggling, dynamic
\nanimal, based on tradition but continually renewing itself and
\nexploring ways for invigoration. For this view, Mas Don was to
\nmeet a lot of criticism and complaints from traditionalists.<\/p>\n
His breaking down walls of tradition did not stop with
\nJavanese dances, in Teges Kanginan village in Bali, too, he gave
\nnew life to the kecak dance of Walter Spies, rooted from the
\ntraditional sanghyang trance dance of Bali.<\/p>\n
"Sardono's kecak was more dynamic, energetic, involving a lot
\nmore movements and sounds that the old kecak, which was performed
\nsitting down," I Ketut Rina, Mas Don's pupil and successor of his
\nCak Tarian Rina, said in an earlier interview.<\/p>\n
Mas Don's exploration of traditional dances further took him
\nto Papua with the Asmat tribe of the marshes and the highland
\nDani tribe, and to the hinterland of Kalimantan to the Dayak
\npeople of Modang and Kenyah.<\/p>\n
"My work is to search into the future through the past to
\nrecover the essential link between man and nature. I dance the
\nman who has lost his cultural roots, or from whom they have been
\ntorn, wandering in our contemporary forests," he once said after
\nreceiving the Prince Claus Awards from Den Haag-based independent
\nfoundation The Prince Claus Fund in 1997. The award, which he
\nreceived together with art critic and curator Jim Supangkat, made
\nhim "guardian" and "interpreter" of Indonesian arts in foreign
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
His work included the environment-themed 1979 Meta Ekologi
\n(Meta-Ecology), the 1983 Hutan Plastik (Plastic Forest), 1987
\nHutan yang Merintih (Groaning Forest), and the critically
\nacclaimed Mahabhuta (1988).<\/p>\n
The 1993 Passage through the Gong was well received at
\nBrooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in New York, and
\nin October 1994 at the Indonesian Dance Festival Mas Don
\nperformed Detik-Detik, Tempo, from midnight until dawn, to
\nprotest the disbandment of medias Detik, Tempo, and Editor.<\/p>\n
"That was the last time I felt TIM functioned as it should.
\nThe last time I felt there was an interaction between society and
\nthe artist, in this case me, and the infrastructure exists (to
\nsupport that interaction)," Mas Don said.<\/p>\n
If his work found more venue abroad than in Indonesia - his
\nwork Soloensis was performed in Hamburg, Germany and Seoul,
\nKorea, as well as Jakarta in 1997, and at the Rio Earth Summit in
\n1999, and Nobody's Body at the opening of the Esplanade in
\nSingapore last year and in Jakarta last month -- it was more
\nbecause of a lack of performing venues here than by choice.<\/p>\n
"(The existing venues) aren't enough. There's too little money
\nand not enough space. When TIM's theaters existed there was a
\nplace for small productions, big productions and medium
\nproductions. Look at it now, the theaters has been torn down,"
\nMas Don said.<\/p>\n
Without proper support and enough freedom, "I can only take
\npity on our artists", he said, "it's bad he has to think about
\nwhat to eat for his next meal as well as find time to practice
\nand create".<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sardono-cherishes-his-good-luck-1447893297",
"image": ""
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