Dance in the fasting month
Dance in the fasting month
Helly Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta
If one is wondering what sort of entertainment can be enjoyed during Ramadhan, then look no further than some of the local art performances that are scheduled during the Muslim holy month.
A kind of mini "dance week" kicked off last night at the Teater Utan Kayu, an independent arts community in East Jakarta.
Opening with a dance solo by Susi Mariaha, the young, talented dancer with the Kreativitaet Dance Company, she performed Waiting, another work of a New York-based Malaysian choreographer Joyce Lim.
In 2002, Lim created Solo for Susi, a taiji-inspired, fine solo piece specially for her. On Tuesday night there will be some dance videos by Jecko Siompo -- a graduate of the Jakarta Arts Institute.
Siompo "warned" that his dance videos were shot very much in do-it-yourself style, totally self-made, from concept to shooting and editing.
"I just took out the dancers, directed their movements and shot the scenes using a dv-camera, before cutting them to down to these four. It's just an experimental, low-budget work -- there's nothing serious about it," he said.
On Wednesday, there will be a screening of two dance documentaries from China, as well as a discussion the next day, moderated by Helly Minarti, who has just came back from nine months of research in China under an ASIA Fellowship.
The first is a dance-theater piece by Living Dance Studio, the first Chinese independent dance-theater company based in Beijing.
Report on the Body, is an evening-length performance juxtaposing dance, theater, literature and visual arts into a tale of contemporary life in Beijing.
Founded by choreographer Wen Hui and her long-time partner/collaborator, filmmaker Wu Wenguang from the Living Dance Studio has a particular approach to its work.
Its core members have engaged in a lot of research, actively taking the bits of their own personal lives (and others) into the performance.
The piece was staged in Beijing in 2002, for the first time in 10 years, they were allowed to sell tickets. Being an "independent company" in China means that you cannot apply for a performance permit, which prevents you from performing in a proper, professional-standard theater.
Promotion is done by phone and word-of-mouth advertising, since they are not supposed to hang posters publicly or distribute leaflets.
However, the group has been touring all over the world and receiving rave reviews -- in several cities in the US in 2003, and several countries in Europe in 2003 and 2004.
In a festival in Zurich, they even won the ZKB-Patronage Award; now they have been able to open their own studio in Beijing, with additional support from a company.
The second video was done by recent graduates of Beijing Dance Academy. Young, talented and well-trained, they show not only virtuoso technique, but also choreographic craftsmanship.
The best of the class (28 of them) now work mostly for prominent choreographers in China, while the rest returned to their hometowns, and found jobs as professional dancers and/or teachers.
Friday is for contemplating this year's Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF), which stimulated a lot of discussion on its program and management. The festival's director, dancer/dance scholar Nungki Kusumastuti, will offer an insider's insight while dance journalist/critic Ria Dewi Utari will also be on hand to share opinions.
All events are scheduled to start at 7 p.m., apart from Tuesday's (Jecko Siompo), which is scheduled for 7:30.p.m.