Devoting herself to 'wayang topeng'

Indra Harsaputra, Contributor, Malang

With great dexterity, Karen Elizabeth demonstrated her skill in the Malang mask dance to The Jakarta Post, showing how she performed one of the folk dances she had mastered.

"I like the Gunungsari wayang topeng (stage show with masked players) dance rather than the Bapang dance," she said. The Gunungsari wayang topeng depicts the good character of the mask shadow puppetry stories, while the Bapang dance illustrates evil characters.

In the wayang topeng stories, each mask expresses a particular character. A red mask, for example, is intended for a character that gets angry easily. A white mask is worn by a character to portray honesty and gallantry, while the mask of a servant of royalty is used to express humor.

Among artists, Karen is known as both a dancer and a sindhen, a singer whose songs accompany a wayang topeng performance, despite the fact that this unique dance genre from Malang has now lost much of its popularity.

Karen, nevertheless, is still full of zest in her attempt to preserve the genre, a folk art form that flourished in the 9th century, when the Medang and Mataram kingdoms moved to East Java.

Aside from serving as a sindhen for wayang topeng, Karen has also frequently taken part as a guest sindhen in wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performances by a number of noted puppet masters including Ki Manteb Sudarsono, Ka Anom Suroto, Ki Enthus, Ki Joko Edan and Soenarjo, the last of whom is also deputy governor of East Java province.

In Mangun Dharma, at an art camp that she and her husband, Ki Soleh Adi Pramono, a noted Malang wayang topeng exponent run, she spends most of her time teaching local children the Malang mask dance. Every day, this art camp, located in Tulus Besar village in Malang regency, is full of dancing and related activities.

Karen also teaches Javanese music, including gamelan instruments such as the kendang (a small drum covered with leather at each end), kenong (a small gong used in gamelan), saron (a metallophone gamelan instrument), peking and rebab (a two-stringed musical instrument).

In her efforts to preserve the mask dance from Malang, Karen has not infrequently given scholarships of a sort to students from poorer families. I have six students from poor families and I financially support them," she said.

Karen, born in 1957 in Wisconsin, United States, also actively takes part in roving performances and distributes VCDs of the mask shadow puppetry shows on the story of Panji Reni that she has produced herself. During the World Rice Expo in Fowler Museum, UCLA, U.S., she promoted wayang topeng there. A leather puppet of Dewi Sri, the Goddess of Rice, made by Ki Soleh Adi Pramono, is one of the items in the collection of this museum.

Besides her mastery of Malang wayang topeng dance, Karen is also accomplished in performing Madura mask dance, Anoman dance, Padang dance and the gandrung Banyuwangi dance.

In 1969, she lived in Yogyakarta accompanying her father, David Schrieber, who taught at Gadjah Mada University there. She became acquainted with and learned how to dance the Trijoyo (gentle princess) dance. Later she learned the Anoman dance from the late Yusmanto in Jakarta.

In 1990, she learned the golek (wooden puppet) dance at Taman Siswa in Yogyakarta from the late Father Sasmito. A short while later she learned the wayang topeng dance from Ki Soleh Adi Pramono.

In 1991, she learned the Madura mask dance from the late Supakra in Slopen, Sumenep, Madura. In the same year, she learned the gandrung Banyuwangi dance from the late Suanah.

"I became interested in the mask dance when I was doing my research on shadow puppetry in Malang for my master's degree," said Karen, an anthropology graduate of Virginia University, U.S.

For Karen, Malang mask dance is no ordinary folk art. She has found in this particular dance a philosophy of life derived from the Panji stories that have been handed down for many generations in East Java.

These stories provide graphic portrayals of good and bad characters.

"I will not cease to stop preserving this particular art form, even though many Indonesians do not properly appreciate their own art genre," said Karen, who remains a U.S. citizen.