Dance in the fasting month
Dance in the fasting month
Hell Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta
Some smallish arts events will be on for enjoyment during
Ramadhan.
A kind of mini "dance week" kicked off last night at Teater
Utan Kayuan independent arts centre/community, East Jakarta.
Opening with a dance solo by Susi Mariaha young, talented
dancer of Kreativitaet Dance Company, this time Susi 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. Tonight (Tuesday) will be for some
dance videos by Jecko Siompo -- a graduate of Jakarta Arts
Institute.
Siompo `warned' that his dance videos were shot very much in
DIY-style, totally self-made, himself working from
conceptualising 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 be
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
documentations from China, as well as an introduction to a talk
the next day, by Helly Minarti, who has just came back from nine
months of research in China under an ASIA Fellowship.
The first is a dance-theatre piece by Living Dance Studio, the
first Chinese independent dance-theatre company based in Beijing.
Report on the Body, so it is titled, is an evening-length
performance juxtaposing dance, theatre, literature and visual
arts into a tell-tale of contemporary life in Beijing.
Founded by choreographer Wen Hui and her long-time
partner/collaborator, filmmaker Wu Wenguang, Living Dance Studio
has a particular approach to its work.
Its core members have engaged in research and workshop,
actively taking the bits of their own personal lives (and others)
into the performance.
The piece was staged in Beijing in late-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
performance permit, which prevents you from performing in a
proper, professional-standard theatre space.
Promotion is done by phone and words spread by word of mouth,
since you are not supposed to stick your poster or distribute
your leaflet.
However, this piece has been touring all over the world and
received 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 space in
Beijing, with additional support from a company.
The second video is two works of most recent graduates of
Beijing Dance Academy, its special class in Guangdong. 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, whilst the rest returned to
their hometowns, and found a job at each, as professional dancers
and/or teachers.
Friday is for contemplating this year's Indonesian Dance
Festival (IDF), which raised a lot of discussions on its program
and management. The festival's director, dancer/dance scholar
Nungki Kusumastuti, will offer an insider's insight whilst dance
journalist/critic Ria Dewi Utari will try to give a balance view.
All events are scheduled to start at 7 p.m., apart from Tuesday's
(Jecko Siompo), which is scheduled for 7:30.p.m.