`Abimanyu Dies in Action' to play first at festival
`Abimanyu Dies in Action' to play first at festival
JAKARTA (JP): The dance company of Theodora Retno Maruti was
awarded the honor of opening the Indonesian Dance Festival on
Thursday at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central
Jakarta.
Hundreds of art critics, celebrities and dance enthusiasts
applauded Theodora, the choreographer and also one of the
dancers, following the performance of Abimanyu Gugur (Abimanyu
Dies in Action), a classical Javanese dance performed in
Mangkunegaran style.
Mangkunegara is the name of an ancient powerful Javanese
kingdom based in Surakarta, Central Java.
"I 'm very optimistic about the future and survival of this
classical dance," Theodora told The Jakarta Post in the dressing
room.
Sal Murgiyanto, one of the festival organizers, said eight
Indonesian choreographers along with six international dance
companies from the United States, Japan and Malaysia, are taking
part in the festival.
The eight are Theodora (Jakarta), Sardono W. Kusumo
(Surakarta), Gusmiati Suid (Jakarta), S. Parmadi (Surakarta), I
Ketut Rina (Denpasar, Bali), Ery Mefri (Padang, West Sumatra),
Sukarji Sriman (Jakarta) and Dewi Hafiyanti (Jakarta).
Molissa Fenley, Polly Motley and Yin Mei Critchell from the
United States, Aida Z. Reda and Suhaimi Magi from Malaysia as
well as Tomoe Shizune from Japan are the foreign participants.
Abimanyu Gugur is a part of the classical Indian Mahabharata
epic which recites political struggles, love affairs and enormous
battles pitting the five Pandawa brothers against the one hundred
Kurawa brothers. Abimanyu's father is Arjuna, one of the Pandawa
brothers.
Ruri Nostalgia, the daughter of Theodora, who played the role
of Abimanyu, led one of Pandawa battalions in one of the
bloodiest battles of the Bharatayudha war.
Pandawa won the war but lost the battle. Abimanyu, however,
died in action with one thousand arrows lodged in his body.
Goenawan Mohammad, the chief-editor of the banned TEMPO
magazine, said at the theater that Theodora had successfully
expressed the tragic death of Abimanyu to tell the audience about
the saga's dark side: the Pandawa brothers defeated the Kurawas
but lost all of their sons.
Festival
Three other choreographers, Yin Mei, I Ketut Rina and Dewi
Hafiyanti, also performed their works on the opening day of the
four-day festival.
Clad in red long dress, Yin Mei, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen,
performed in Birds in Warped Time. She danced, jumped and pranced
to express the struggle of a bird trying to escape from being
trapped in a beam of light and succeeding in the end.
A teacher of ballet, traditional Chinese dance, Tai Chi,
modern composition and techniques for improvisation and
relaxation at Queens College in New York, Yin Mei displayed
impressive and lively techniques of dancing that won tremendous
applause from the audience.
Dewi Hafianti presented Malayok or Tari Piring ( Plate Dance),
a Minangkabau (West Sumatra)-based folk dance, in which nine
performers danced while carrying plates holding lighted candles
in their hands.
Toeti Heraty, the rector of the Jakarta Institute for the
Arts, said that the annual festival will play a significant role
in the development of dance education in Indonesia.
Sardono W. Kusumo, a prominent Indonesian choreographer, is
scheduled to perform his six-hour Detik ... detik ... Tempo work
today from midnight till dawn. The dance is named after the
recently banned DeTIK and TEMPO weekly magazines.(09)