Dancer Horn shares insight with local peers

Dancer Horn shares insight with local peers

Helly Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta

It was a typically hot and humid afternoon in Jakarta. Inside the
studio of Eksotika Karmawibhangga Indonesia (EKI) dance company
all the doors were open as about 20 sweating young dancers did
their best at an improvisation session.

Henrietta Horn -- the German choreographer who staged her
premiere dance piece in the Indonesia Arts Summit last year --
seemed pleased to see the results.

The 33-year-old Horn had kept her promise to return to Jakarta
to complete the workshop which had been scheduled for after her
Arts Summit performance which was canceled, partly due to the
Sept. 11 tragedy.

Now, she shared dance techniques she had mastered at dance
schools in Cologne and in Folkwang Tanzschule in Essen, Germany.
A simple movement was introduced and bits added during the course
of the four-hour-a-day, five-day workshop.

"I've also taken a small part from Auftaucher (Emerging), a
repertoire, for them to work on," she explained.

Auftaucher was her piece performed at the Summit. The work is
full of wit, flowing with a style that requires dancers to excel
in doing quick and harmonious parallel movements.

"It's a short part of the repertoire, but nevertheless not
easy at all." At the end of the session, she asked the dancers --
most of them young but with some on-stage experience under famous
Indonesian choreographers -- to pair and create their own par-de-
deux based on what they've been taught in the last five days.

"It's very interesting and useful," said Benny Krisnawardi, a
choreographer who has graduated from the Jakarta Arts Institute
(IKJ).

Benny, one of Gumarang Sakti's main dancers, said he had not
only learned a new technique and dancing style, but was now
inspired to compose. Others commented that Horn passed it in a
very systematic way to make it accessible and enjoyable at the
same time. In the afternoon, Horn took time to show some videos
of well-known German choreographers.

"There's a piece of Pina (Bausch) where Indonesian dancer
Ditta (Miranda Jasfji) was taking part. And something crazy from
choreographer Mark Siskarek of Folkwang Tanz Studio with Ditta
and Judi (Sjuman) also in it," she said of the videos.

This is to give the dancers insights to the German Tanztheater
-- a genre that defined the contemporary dance as it is now
widely known in Germany.

Jakarta has been lucky with workshops delivered by world-class
dancers-cum-choreographers.

Before Henrietta Horn, the Goethe Institute invited Juan Kruz
Diaz Garainola, a Spanish dancer working for German company Sasha
Waltz & Guests, to give a five-day session last year.

During the Summit, apart from Horn, The British Council also
asked Akhram Khan -- the British-Bangladeshi who has been
adapting the technique of classical Kathak to modern dance -- to
give some classes. Both were intensive courses, taking a few
hours a day for almost a week.

Later, the Canadian Les Ballet du Montreal, a group that gave
a stunning dance night, also gave a very short workshop, limited
to 15 dancers.

The local dancers quickly grabbed the opportunity. In a
country where modern dance is still very much in development, the
visits of these world acts provided a boost to encourage local
dancers to perform onstage. Most of the participating dancers
have finished their dance training here, and the opportunity to
travel abroad to study is restricted to all but a lucky few.

The workshop provides this window: Besides learning some new
dance technique and exposure to certain artistic styles, it also
creates a rare chance to meet the choreographers and talk about
dance in their part of the world.

Horn, for example, has a load of experience that can benefit
the aspiring young.

After beginning dancing at an early age, the Berlin-born Horn
switched paths to sport, and studied in Cologne, home to a
vibrant dance scene.

"But then the sport academy has a dance department, and I was
re-converted," she laughed. This sport-dance combination prepared
her for the future.

"In sport they have a discipline that people don't in dance.
It's a different approach, of course. In sport you are driven by
certain targets in physical ability -- to be higher, faster,
whatever while in dance it's about the art. But it does help to
apply some principle in sport to dance: The warming et cetera up
for example. Athletes always know how to bring themselves down,"
she said.

She did well with her dancing, but was told that her physique
was not that of a professional dancer. That is when she started
choreography -- and found her strength in it.

Now, despite her young age, she is the Artistic Director of
Folkwang Tanz Studio (FTS), a company that can be traced back to
the traditions of its founder, Kurt Joos, seventy years before.

FTS earns its fame after being led by big names in Tanztheater
such as Bausch and Susanne Linke (both performed in Jakarta in
1974 and 1998 respectively).

"Well, I try not to think about it," Horn said, commenting the
"historical baggage" she carries with her title. "If it becomes
too much, I'll just go away," she shrugged, lightly. Though she
admits, that this burden also has a bright side as it does open
doors to many opportunities.

Horn was pleased with the workshop in Jakarta. "The
participants are mixed in their dance backgrounds, and that's not
easy. But they seemed focused, willing to learn. I can see the
development from day one to the end."

Rushing back to Germany the next day after the workshop, Horn
said she would like to see her FTS dancers performing a Bausch
piece.

"After that, it is my turn to dance in a production of my
dancers. I simply need a break before working on my next piece
that is based on a Japanese Opera."

A shooting star she is, but she is very aware of the fact that
this is the result of balancing sheer determination with her
sense of on-stage artistry.

The writer is employed by the British Council