Asia Society promotes Indonesia's culture in U.S.

By Mehru Jaffer

NEW YORK (JP): Lovers of Indonesian culture here are waiting anxiously for the moment when they can relive the romance they experienced before. As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world preoccupies itself with a facelift appropriate for the new millennium, a little lull is to be expected from the country's cultural emissaries.

And thus people in New York City have remained filled with excitement and anxiety as they watch from a distance the great changes taking place in Indonesia.

Rachel Cooper, the performing arts coordinator at New York's Asia Society and founder of Sekar, the Balinese dance troupe based in San Francisco, said: "The greatest challenge before us at the moment is to figure out how to represent Indonesian culture? How to create new opportunities, to expand our presentations of Indonesian performing arts in the United States and to build a wider appreciation of their richness and diversity."

The Asia Society is America's leading institution dedicated to fostering better understanding between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. Founded in 1956 on the initiative of John D Rockefeller III, hundreds of thousands of people have found information, insight and connections through conferences, educational programs, publications, the Internet, performances and art exhibitions regularly organized by the Society. The goal is to reach at least one million people annually by the beginning of the 21st century.

Rachel strongly feels that the multiple changes taking place in Indonesia today should not be concentrated merely in financial and political areas.

"It is so important for all Americans to continue to have positive communication with Indonesia, and one way of doing this is through an ongoing exchange of cultural activities," said the proponent of cultural diplomacy, who feels that politics and finance have brought little good news from Indonesia in recent times. However, she worries that those who have provided financial support in the past to promote cultural activities may not be in a position to do so now.

Rachel is in the middle of organizing a Ramayana performance for the year 2001 as part of a major performing arts festival in New York. The participation of Indonesia hinges on whether funds are found to make it possible for Indonesian artists to be able to attend.

"It is for Indonesian business people and Americans doing business in Indonesia to think of how they can continue to generously contribute to promoting cultural events even in the midst of major political and economic transformations," said Rachel.

She said that almost a decade has passed since New Yorkers witnessed the last huge festival of Indonesia in 1990-1991, when 320 Indonesian artists mesmerized audiences here.

Rachel recalls that the last festival had a powerful impact on American audiences and the performers in turn were deeply affected by the experience of performing in the United States, gaining a deeper appreciation of their own art through this recognition.

Above all, the festival forged new relationships at many levels, inspiring the San Francisco Examiner to refer to it as one of the most innovative events of 1991. The only reason similar festivals have not been held more regularly is a lack of adequate funding.

Smaller events continue to be staged. Autumn last year saw an evening-length dance theater work that portrayed apparent contradictions faced by non-Western artists, who are rooted in the age-old traditions of their homeland yet seek to create wholly new responses to their contemporary world. The work was the result of a year-long collaboration between New York-based choreographer Yin Mei and Indonesian composer Tony Prabowo.

Chinese dancer Yin Mei grew up in the midst of political instability of staggering proportions, and through her dance she tries to come to terms with the tragic killings during China's Cultural Revolution. Similarly, Prabowo, from Malang in East Java, is forced to find answers in music for the horrors that took place in the "Year of Living Dangerously", when hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in the chaotic aftermath of an attempted coup in Indonesia.

Prabowo was first noticed in New York when he composed music for the Ritual of Solomon's Children at the City's International Festival of the Arts in 1988 and created music for the experimental play Blurred Vision at the Theater for the New City, New York. Today Prabowo has become a household name in New York for the fusion of Western classical music with his traditional approach. What Yin Mei and Prabowo find in common is their need to explore the conflict between rigid tradition and the perceived freedom of contemporary life.

Audiences here can't wait for Prabowo's next performance, that will include two operas based on the lyrics of Goenawan Mohamad, exploring the concept of evil on stage at the prestigious Lincoln Center. The other hope is to be able to fly in at least 10 dancers from Bali for a performance by Sekar, the dance troupe which Rachel founded 20 years ago in America.

Only until recently had Asia seemed for most Americans a world apart: exotic, remote and sometimes explosively unstable.

"Not anymore," said Nicholas Platt, president of the Society, adding that with a common stake in the global economy both Asians and Americans share a strategic concern for international stability and an abiding interest in a better understanding of each other's values. The Asian economic crisis and its aftermath has only reinforced the interdependence between Asia and America, he said.

He is aware that the road toward financial recovery in Asia could be a long one for some. But he also seems determined to continue America's engagement in Asia not just to bring Americans closer to Asia but also Asians closer to each other.