Didik marks birthday in style

Cynthia Webb, Contributor, Yogyakarta

A man of many talents, and faces, Didik Nini Thowok will mark a milestone in his life in his hometown, surrounded by friends and colleagues from the arts.

Yogyakarta residents are in for a rare treat during the week commencing Dec. 13, when one of the city's most famous citizens will join his international colleagues and friends to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Didik Nini Thowok wants to share the occasion with the people of city he calls home, and has arranged a major performance and exhibition event lasting from Monday to Saturday, Dec. 18.

His birthday was actually on Nov. 13, but it was impossible to celebrate at that time, as he was performing overseas during the post-fasting month Idul Fitri holidays.

Didik is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, mime, comedian, television star and expert make-up artist, well known in the country and his native Yogyakarta from his TV appearances.

He has called upon international colleagues to come to Yogyakarta to help him celebrate the dance, his own life and work in that art form, and especially the time-honored Asian tradition of cross gender performance.

Leading dance artists from Japan, India, China and Indonesia will celebrate together, when The Didik Nini Thowok Foundation presents TRANCEFORMATION at The Concert Hall, Societet Taman Budaya, Yogyakarta, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17-18.

This show was inspired by a similar performance first conceived and performed in Japan, and which toured Europe and Cairo with great success in 2003.

The week's program leading up to the performance will be a unique combination of traditional and contemporary dance, a book launching (Didik's biography), dance workshops, pantomime, drag and comedy shows, as well as exhibitions of costumes, props and photographs from his varied career.

There will even be ngamen, a traditional street performance of singing and dancing in public.

Malioboro street will see Didik and seven other lookalikes dancing along the busy shopping street. Perhaps it will be difficult to know which one is Didik, but does it matter? What is important is that proceeds donated by passersby and street vendors will go toward the continuing social aid programs sponsored by The Didik Nini Thowok Foundation.

All of the fun and games will culminate with the presentation of TRANCEFORMATION -- a two and a half hour show featuring cross- gender performances by acclaimed male and female performers of enormous experience and skill in dance forms which are profoundly difficult to master.

Guest dancers who will perform in TRANCEFORMATION are Gojo Masanosuke of Japan, an Onnagata or male performer of female roles in Kabuki theater; William Lau of China, a performer of the Chinese Opera; Srikanth of India, who has performed as a female for about 20 years since the age of six; Sangeeta Isvaran of India, a woman who dances male and female roles and prefers to think of her body as purely the vehicle for the character.

Didik's Indonesian guest dancers include the highly respected Indonesian female performer, Rasinah, who is still performing at the age of 76. She will perform the mesmerizing Cirebon style mask dance, impersonating a male with great authority.

From Bali, the dancers are Putu Raksa, who has frequently performed female roles, including in the famous Legong dance, as well as I Nyoman Sukama and I Made Suarca, who have revived a dance form called Arja, which originated in the 18th century, and used men in the women's roles.

Many parts of Asia have long-standing histories of cross- gender performance and TRANCEFORMATION is designed to demonstrate the great artistry required of the performers.

It is also intended to inspire appreciation for this recently misunderstood, but very old and widespread tradition of many facets. Didik hopes his audiences will be moved to rethink any negative attitudes they might have in these modern times about cross-gender performances.

Didik is studying the historical origins of cross-gender performance. He is also researching its links with comedic dance and performance. It involves collecting many interesting facts, perhaps in a bid to fully understand his own position in this art form in which he has inherited a major role on the world stage.

For example, in 1629 Japan, the Shogunate prohibited women performing in the new Kabuki performances of the time. It was considered to be compromising to the morals of the female performers and the public, so young men replaced them for a while.

This was later banned for the same reasons, and adult men began playing the female roles, starting the enduring role of the Onnagata in Kabuki theater in Japan. A Japanese Onnagata will perform as part of the TRANCEFORMATION show.

Cross-gender performance also has a history in the West. During the Tudor period in England, when William Shakespeare lived, theater became immensely popular, but all stage roles were played by men.

It was King Charles II who overturned the rules in 1660 and the first female actress appeared as Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello. The king forbade men to play female roles. Until that time young boys had made their careers by specializing in impersonating women on the stage. In Europe women had made their stage debut some years earlier.

These examples demonstrate that cross-gender performance has always gone in both directions during its long history, and is a tradition initiated by social attitudes and affected by social change.

Didik Nini Thowok is a man of enormous energy and inspiration, who manages his own career, and is master of his own dance academy in Yogyakarta, where there are hundreds of pupils. He also manages a charity foundation through which he assists people in need.

One of his commitments is in paying attention to certain traditional dances exclusive to small villages. To make sure that Java doesn't lose this precious cultural heritage, he assists the people to revive and perform them again. He does frequent dance and comedy performances while in Indonesia, regularly appears on television in comedy shows, and spends at least half of each year performing internationally.

As well as performing, he also teaches dance workshops at universities around the globe -- advancing the world's appreciation of Java's refined and ancient dance forms, and also personally demonstrating the refinement of Javanese manners. He is always planning ahead toward ever more exciting ways to develop his love of the art of dance performance and to share it with the world.

He does all this with an unflappable style and grace, and seems to have never-ending energy. During the last three years, Didik has been around the world 15 times. He has performed or taught in Russia, Egypt, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Canada, India, Malaysia, Korea and Japan.

With Didik, appearances can be very deceiving. He is an enigmatic persona, changing his looks, changing his masks, wigs and costumes on stage before our eyes -- one minute a beautiful, elegant woman, the next minute a grotesque character, now old and bent, now young again.

At the end of a performance, off come the wigs and masks, and we see the beaming face of the real Didik, who certainly does not look as if he could be 50. He is truly the master of "transformation".

Full details and the schedule of the week long celebration can be found at the website: www.didikninithowok.info/TRANCEFORMATION/