Choreographer Pamardi tshows audience mysticism

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta, Central Java

An old man sits on a plaited mat. Beside him, old ladies are waiting for his signal. Two bamboo-plaited winnowing trays containing an assortment of snacks as offerings are ready to be given to Mbah Sura, the man believed to possess some magic power and able to make other people invincible and strong.

These old women maintain their patience although they have been waiting for quite a while and the signal from Mbah Sura is yet to come.

Quiet. None of the women dares to say anything when Mbah Sura slowly gets up from his meditation position. He mumbles incomprehensible sentences, interrupted once in a while by his own groaning. When he enters a trance, his shouting gets louder while the sentences he utters remain difficult to understand.

Uniquely, in such a situation, the waiting women become very happy. Hopefully, they will begin a dialog with Mbah Sura and ask him for something. They are all happy as they are sure they will immediately get some power, especially when Mbah Sura throws away the rings previously worn round his fingers.

Who is Mbah Sura? He is a charismatic figure in Javanese myth, particularly in Surakarta, a city where many of its residents believe in mysticism. The name refers to a person's heroism (in ancient Javanese, sura means courageous). This mythical figure is also linked with the civil war following the killing of a number of army generals in Jakarta, popularly known as the Sept. 30 coup attempt by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Although the story of Mbah Sura is close to realism, in Pamardi' choreography, titled Caping mBah Sura (mBah Sura's bamboo-plaited conical-shaped cap) it is more a dance drama.

Playing the role of Mbah Sura himself, Pamardi presents only part of the story, part related to the rite conducted by this old man, who is believed to be bullet-proof because of his supernatural powers.

Unfortunately, this piece, which is Pamardi's 13th choreographic work, was a flop when it was restaged at Teater Utan Kayu (TUK) in East Jakarta on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Its structure was difficult to understand and it seemed like the audience failed to grasp what the artist wanted to say through his work.

For most in the audience, this dance drama looked more like a fragment of a slightly modified Javanese stage show with a shadow play theme. The vocabulary of movement in traditional Javanese dance was prominent in this piece, particularly when the idioms of bambangan, which are usually found in the scene of a Cakil (a noble shadow play character with protruding lower jaw) or a buto (giant) in the shadow play were unfittingly mixed with modern dance movement.

Luckily, Dedek Wahyudi, the music arranger, could enliven the atmosphere. Assuming the role of a reporter, he frequently chipped in with his comments because, as the story went, he was always prevented by the old ladies from interviewing or taking pictures of Mbah Sura.

Pamardi's Caping Mbah Sura is way different from his monumental work, Komposisi III (Composition III, 1985). It is even incomparable with his two earlier choreographic works, Sketsa Genta Kecil (Sketch of Small Bell, 1991) and Kalatidha (1996). In these three other pieces, Pamardi shows his wildness and successfully explores the dancers. When these pieces were performed, Pamardi visually experimented with movement on the basis of the classical Javanese dance and also successfully made use of the costume and stage property. In Sketsa Genta Kecil, for example, the musical effect of two bells could be used as accompanying music.

The two nights at TUK also saw the performance of Si Mbok (a form of addressing older Javanese women of humble origin), which was created by his wife, Saryuni Padminingsih.

Unfortunately, this performance seemed to make Pamardi's failure complete as this piece was heavy with Javanese traditional songs, which were used as the main materials. It's a pity that these songs were neither communicative nor could enliven the story structure. This failure could perhaps be attributed to Saryuni's background as a classical Javanese dancer.