Boi G. Sakti finds dancing a man's world

By Hera Diani

JAKARTA (JP): I could not help asking the Billy Elliot question.

Why does choreographer Boi G. Sakti like to dance?

While 11-year-old Billy said in the movie that he did not know why, he just does, Boi calmly replied, "We just can't deny the blood that runs through our veins."

He meant the inheritance from his mother, noted choreographer Gusmiati Suid.

It has brought him and the Gumarang Sakti Dance Company established by Gusmiati to major stages all over the world to perform tradition-inspired contemporary dances created by Boi.

But it was not until he was 17 that Boi, now 35, put his interest fully into dancing.

"I always thought that a man's place was not on stage. So, even though dancers practiced in our house every day, I didn't care," he said recently at his studio in Depok.

"I did dance at that time and won (awards at) several festivals. But it was break dancing."

Instead, Boi fell into drugs and juvenile crime back in Batusangkar, West Sumatra, where he was born and grew up. A self- professed troublemaker, Boi said he was put in jail several times in the city located some 50 kilometers north of the province's capital Padang.

"I made it to the high school graduation simply because the school didn't want me there anymore," said the husband of Hartati, also a dancer and choreographer.

In 1986, not knowing where to go after high school, he enrolled in the Jakarta Arts Institute and took a dancing course.

"My mother, who was a guest professor there, encouraged me to enroll. And so I did. I just wanted to get out of the city."

The turning point came six months later when he placed in the top five in a dance festival. It kindled his enthusiasm and he started to create more dances.

"But even then, I was still embarrassed to perform on stage. I preferred to be a choreographer."

Boi's signature style is fast and powerful dance moves. His inspiration mostly comes from the traditional dance and art of West Sumatra.

"But actually my inspiration comes from anything. It's like being in a deep dark hole. I turn to the direction where there is light," said the father of a two-year-old daughter.

The themes of his dances range from women's issues to the current political situation, or simply old memories.

With more than 100 compositions of his creation, Boi and the company have traveled to many countries in Asia and Europe, as well as to the United States, spending the better part of the last five years abroad. Boi also worked for the Singapore Dance Theater, TheatreWork Singapore and Ballet Philippines.

According to Boi, the company's most memorable gig was in New York in 1991 when they won the Bessie Award, the highest prize for a stage performance act in the United States.

"It was a truly joyous moment because we faced a lot of obstacles and challenges before we went to New York," he said.

The obstacles, he added, were the classic and enduring difficulties of the arts in Indonesia: a lack of financial and moral support.

"It's very unfortunate that the people and government have yet to become aware of the arts. It is actually the arts that boost this country's reputation in the international scene," he asserted.

Stage performances can also be a good business, he said, if they are managed well.

Boi said he could get up to US$10,000 for a dance composition; in Singapore, a promoter is willing to pay S$35,000 (Rp 175 million) for one show.

"But that didn't come in a snap of the fingers. We needed good managers who could penetrate the network in foreign countries and negotiate."

Boi said the situation had changed now that he was not just doing choreography, but also serves as lighting designer and art and stage director.

"The worse thing is that sometimes we get underpaid just because we come from Indonesia, like $2,000 for example. But young artists take it because if we convert it to rupiah, it is a huge amount of money," he said.

Our artists have to be confident, Boi added, because they have great potential and their skills are equal with those of their foreign peers, and maybe even richer and more creative due to Indonesia's long artistic tradition.

The country's artists, he said, are also less spoiled than foreign artists because of the many obstacles they face in their careers.

"In some countries the artists are too formal. They have certain work hours and working contracts. They don't want to do anything outside that. We shouldn't be like that as artists. We have to give everything for the sake of art."

Boi still has one obsession, to take his company on a tour from one country to another.

For the time being, the Gumarang Sakti Dance Company will perform at the Art Summit Indonesia 2001 on Tuesday and Wednesday at Graha Bakti Budaya in the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta.

After that, he plans to return to his hometown for a month to do research.

Back to the Billy Elliot question.

"Now, I can answer why I like dancing. Because dance is able to express our world, our history and the complexity of life. My life is for dancing, and I'll stick with it as long as I can."