Guruh presents tourism show
JAKARTA (JP): A 74-year-old woman entered and stood on stage, a bit ruffled by the plain batik belted around her frail body that kept getting caught up in her tiny feet.
Her noticeably lined face started to twitch when she saw the 200-odd audience, consisting mainly of expatriates and public figures. And then, she danced.
Sawitri, the legendary Cirebon mask dancer from the Losari regency of Cirebon, West Java, kicked her legs into air, her arms and hands moving staccato-style. And then she stood still, put on the fiery-red Rahwana mask and moved her shoulders expertly to the gamelan music played by 12 men.
Topeng Cirebon (Cirebon Mask) was the second of six performances on Friday and Saturday at the Spirit of Indonesia Charity Nights held at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in Central Jakarta.
The event, that cost US$100 (Rp 850,000) and US$50 a seat, was a collaboration of noted choreographer Guruh Soekarnoputra and the ministry. It was meant to convey the true colors of local dance traditions to enhance Indonesia's flagging image.
However, the rest of the dances, choreographed by Guruh himself, fell short of the essence of traditional dances.
The evening began with the welcoming Gending Sriwijaya from Palembang, South Sumatra, followed by the Balinese Legong Jobog. This told the story in a chapter of the Ramayana epic in which two brothers, Sugriwa and Subali, fight over the holy relic Cepu Manik Astina.
In the performances of Puspa Ragam Melayu, a composition of Malay dances, and Pasundan Sali, a sequence comprising Sundanese and Javanese numbers, sequined outfits and umbrellas and continuous shaking of behinds -- something not usually present in Javanese dances -- stood out.
In the second part of the evening, Guruh presented his contemporary choreography with dancers in extravagant costumes.
Guruh Soekarnoputra's dance troupe started in the early 1980s, with the hope that the "glamorization" of traditional dancing could attract young people to learn about the art. The same ideas were presented in his show this weekend.
There was the exception of course of a guy in a tux and a woman in a white sequined Javanese outfit lip-synching to an English song. The lyrics told audiences to "come to Indonesia, the land of a variety of mysterious places."
Asked why he maintained the glamorization of traditional arts in his choreographies, Guruh said he could not stand people associating Indonesia with bad images.
"Why is it that whenever people talk of Indonesia, it has to be about the old and the ancient? Or worse, about poverty or rioting?" Guruh said.
"We need glamorization to spell out to them that we do not belong to the old and the ancient." (ylt)