Gumarang Sakti draws on Minang heritage in dance

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.