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.