Contemporary dance making steady comeback

Contemporary dance making steady comeback

Helly Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta

The sense -- or scent -- of spring is hardly felt in the
capital, but this year, this time somehow marks the beginning of
dance season on the familiar stages of the Jakarta Playhouse and
Teater Utan Kayu.

Several local dance performances were seen last month
beginning with Jefriandi Usman and his sequel to last year's
"body studies" at the Jakarta Playhouse titled Tubuh dan
Pikiranku (My Body and Mind). This was followed by Benny
Krisnawardi's latest work in the smaller Teater Utan Kayu, Si Tua
di Kamar Belakang (The Elders in the Back Room) and two nights of
Jecko Siompo's In Front of Papua -- a full-length production.

These three choreographers are graduates of the Jakarta Arts
Institute. Jefri seemed to stick with the usual dancers he
collaborates with, while Jecko continued to work with the same
dancers he worked with before -- all trained in Papua-style aside
from a guest dancer who trained in modern/contemporary technique
and an Australian-Indonesian. Jolanda G. Wattimury, the guest
dancer, is here on an arts exchange program.

Meanwhile, Benny's piece was performed by a group of new
dancers he trained himself over the last two years -- youngsters
living in his neighborhood. With his relatively new company,
Sigma Dance Theater, Benny, who previously was more popularly
known as the key dancer of Gumarang Sakti Dance Company, is now
stretching this work to be staged at the bigger Jakarta Playhouse
on June 16.

Three dance pieces of Kreativitaet Dance Indonesian (KDI)
closed the month, featuring in-house choreographers Judi Sjuman
and Chendra Effendi and the company's long-time collaborator,
Canadian choreographer Maxine Heppner.

Led by the former Bolshoi-graduate ballerina-choreographer
Farida Oetojo, KDI has been consistent in giving an annual
performance since its founding back in 1998. This year it is
scheduled to give another smaller performance in September.

Apart from cultivating its home-trained dancers and
choreographers (Oetojo has been running her Sumber Cipta Ballet
school for more than two decades), KDI also invites guest
choreographers both from here and abroad. This year marks the
comeback of the troupe's collaborator of 16 years, Maxine
Heppner, who rehearsed her One Fine Line, with KDI's main dancers
for almost four weeks.

One Fine Line is about how memory works based on a study on
neurology, as interpreted by Heppner in minimalist settings,
music and movements.

The "minimalist" dance contrasted with the two works of KDI's
choreographers. Chendra Effendi, a former Sumber Cipta dancer and
a graduate of Melbourne's Victoria College of the Arts in
contemporary dance, presents Ode Untuk Asa (An Ode to Hope), a
light-hearted, dynamic work combining Gypsy-like movement and
bright-colored costumes with live music performed by Metadomus.

Judi Sjuman -- another former Sumber Cipta student and a
graduate of the renowned Folkwang Tanzschule in Essen, Germany --
revised his work Woman -- a piece inspired by a poem by W.B.
Yeats. He based the work on modern ballet movement, centering on
neat structure, flowing formation with group and solo acts.

The dancers are a mix of a few seniors and younger ones,
reflecting a regeneration in the school-company. Most of them
have danced with the school since they were children, and grew
together in technique and maturity. One of the strengths of
Sumber Cipta is indeed the ability to produce a new, good
generation of dancers. Some of them have made an international
debut in the past -- names like Linda Hoemar who once danced for
New York-based Elisa Monte Dance Company and Ditta Miranda Jasfji
who now dances for Wuppertal Dance Theatre led by the doyenne of
German Tanztheater, Pina Bausch.

A musical by Eksotika Karmawibhangga Indonesia (EKI) dance
company opened with Battle of Love in June, choreographed by
Rusdi Rukmarata. The three-day performance attracted a much wider
crowd than the average contemporary dance group.

An international dance act, French Regine Chopinot of Le
Ballet Atlantique, will stage Giap Than (The Monkey Year) on June
9-10 at the Jakarta Playhouse, a piece she produced in
collaboration with Vietnamese dancers from l'Opira-Ballet de
Hanoi and Ecole Supirieure de Danse du Viet-Nam.

The dance performance opened the Jakarta Anniversary Festival
(JAF) III: Performing Arts on Urban Culture, which overlapped
with the performance of Ali Sukri at Teater Utan Kayu. JAF will
also present another dance set by IKJ Dance Company, whose
members are students and lecturers of the Jakarta Arts
Institute's (IKJ) dance department on June 19. Themed Searching
Without End, the night will stage three pieces choreographed by
Ignatius Riman, Sukarji Sriman and Wiwiek Sipala respectively.

Contemporary dance is going through a difficult period in
Indonesia as local talent has been lacking in the past few years,
and new faces are still in training and have yet to mature. As
the most impoverished of the performing arts, contemporary dance
is struggling in and outside the capital. A slow comeback is
expected, as the younger generation learn not only how to
choreograph but also how to run a production.