Dance festival goes on without trademark show

Dance festival goes on without trademark show

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Too many times, bad management and a shortage of funds have been
cited as excuses for poor performance in the local arts scene.
But it is a crying shame when this becomes the case for this
year's Indonesian Dance Festival, IDF, 2002.

Since its conception in 1992, the festival has been the
proving ground for young new talents eager to make it in the
performing arts scene, both locally and internationally. One of
the reasons for this is the international impact of the festival
and the opportunity for young dancers and choreographers to
showcase their creations in the event.

The festival's chairman Sal Murgiyanto said noted dancer and
choreographer Eko Supriyanto -- one of Madonna's background
dancers in her Drowned World Tour 2001 -- emerged from IDF, first
as a newcomer then as the festival's main performance.

"It's such a shame that we are unable to hold a showcase this
year, but there wasn't much time to allow a proper selection of
newcomers and also our limited funding wouldn't allow it," Ratna
Riantiarno of the Jakarta Arts Council said in a media conference
recently.

In the past, foreign dancers and choreographers were also
given the opportunity to collaborate with local artists through a
residency program sponsored by the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Ford
Foundation.

In the 1999 festival, for example, Korean choreographer
Seongjoo Joh collaborated with Farida Oetoyo's Kreativitat dance
group to perform Second Name of that Woman, and China's Wen Hui
collaborated with dancers from the Indonesian School of Arts in
Surakarta, Central Java (STSI Surakarta) to perform Dinner with
1999.

"The interaction with foreign artists enabled local dancers
and choreographers to learn and share their experiences," Nungki
Kusumastuti, dancer and lecturer from the Jakarta Institute of
Arts (IKJ), said.

This year, however, aside from the missing showcase program,
the organizers also no longer have the support from UNESCO and
Ford Foundation. In the end, only one foreign resident artist
will collaborate, Malaysia's Joyce Lim with Eksotika
Karmawibhangga Indonesia's (EKI) dancer Takako Leen.

"And that was through Joyce's own sources," IDF 2002's
secretary-general Sukarji Sriman said.

However, the organizers' effort to arrange this year's
festival -- which will run from Sept. 6 to Sept. 21 -- is
commendable, especially when the last IDF only occurred three
years ago in 1999.

"We wanted to make the festival run once in every two years,
but because of the riots and the (Indonesian) Art Summit, it had
to be every three years since 1996," Sukarji said, adding that
the organizers will try to make the festival a biannual event
again.

Also, this year's IDF will include a one-day seminar on
educational dance at Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki
(TIM) on Sept. 21, 2002. It will discuss problems faced by public
school teachers in teaching dancing as an extra-curricular
activity as well as part of the school's curriculum.

Former director-general of culture, dancer, and University of
Indonesia lecturer, Edi Sedyawati, will give a keynote speech at
the seminar.

The festival this year will open with a full production of the
United States' Janis Brenner and Dancers at Gedung Kesenian
Jakarta (GKJ). GKJ will also host performances by Joyce Lim,
Taiwan's Kwok Hiu-Wah and Cho Ting-Chu, and Japan's Osamu Jareo
and Misako Terada.

In the following weeks, solo performances of various noted
choreographers including Janis Brenner, Indonesia's Sardono W.
Kusumo, Joyce Lim, Cho Ting-Chu, Osamu Jareo, and Misako Terada,
can be seen at Teater Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.

The IKJ Dance Company will close the festival with creations
of Sukarji Sriman, Jefriandi Usman, and Kristiono Soewardjo.

This year the festival, the sixth in the running, is organized
by IKJ together with the Jakarta Arts Council, Teater Utan Kayu,
and GKJ.

Tickets for the performances at GKJ cost between Rp 20,000 and
Rp 50,000, while invitations for performances at Teater Utan Kayu
can be obtained from Sept. 1 at Teater Utan Kayu, Jl. Utan Kayu
No. 68 H, Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

For more information on ticket reservations call GKJ on
3808283, Teater Utan Kayu on 8573388. For information on the
seminar call IKJ on 3159105.