Gumarang Sakti draws on Minang heritage in dance

By Mariam K. Sutalaksana

JAKARTA (JP): Plates flew across the stage with dancers catching, throwing and running with them.

Clanking sounds of the dishes as they collided into a pile opened performances by Gumarang Sakti Dance Company last Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

At one point a plate broke, and the audience was kept on the edge of their seats wondering if another would smash.

It was from Suap by Hartati, a younger generation choreographer in the dance company.

Gumarang Sakti, a dance company in residence at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, was founded by Gusmiati Suid, who remains the artistic director.

Their accomplishments can be traced all the way back to 1987 when they participated in the Indonesian Festival of Choreography.

Since then, this group has traveled extensively around the world to destinations such as Calcutta for the Asia Festival of Theater Dance and other international events in Hong Kong, the United States and Japan, to mention just a few.

In June this year, they were once again invited to a festival in Singapore.

For the International Performing Arts Festival at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Suid created contemporary choreography with notable influences from the Minangkabau, or West Sumatran, tradition called Kabar Burung (Hearsay).

In the preceding performance of Suap, Hartati explored the well-used prop of the plate, a fixture in West Sumatran dances.

On stage she flung the plate to others, placed it on the ground, carried it off stage, and repeated this over and over in an intricate pattern.

Then, the dancers gathered at center stage to eat out of these empty plates in their dusty brown shirts and trousers. Hungry and animalistic, they ate from the emptiness of the dishes.

At times suddenly stopping in mid-run, the dancers moved with blank expressions on their faces, their hands in angular positions as symbolizing a bleak present.

Hartati uses the plate to symbolize imagination; she wanted the audience to think about social differences in contemporary society.

Wisdom

Her efforts were in line with the company's efforts to move from traditional to contemporary dance. Her undoubtedly contemporary choreography was a little rough at the edges.

Suid's Kabar Burung commences with Tupai Janjang. This is usually presented as a whole show, with parables containing words of wisdom for the younger generation.

In her dance, Suid had a man confusing facts as he calls out in the Minang dialect. A group of dancers came on the stage wearing traditional costumes, and lined up in the center.

The dance set-up and lighting was a feast for the eyes. In the left corner, a podium was set where the man called out to the people, and in the back a light shone through a gate.

The dance provided an atmosphere of a dreary traditional neighborhood, aligned with Suid's hope to convey the present situation in society.

To her, contemporary society is teeming with people who try to solve problems by looking for scapegoats and by manipulating facts. The dance ended with the man espousing her cause all the way toward the audience, as a group of dancers moved to chants of a prayer to God.

It was a rather gloomy theme for the troupe. However, their technical support and the dynamic movements added a light touch to their performance.

The lighting was by Boi Sakti, the son of Gusmiati Suid, himself a noted choreographer who led the Singapore performance earlier this year.

Some dancers still needed polishing in their contemporary dance techniques, but others shone like stars when they moved in their comfortable traditional movements.

Improvement means being daring enough to attempt to learn the unfamiliar. Gumarang Sakti is already headed in the right direction as it moves from traditional to contemporary dance.