Indonesian and German choreographers come 'Face to Face'

By Michael Dusche

JAKARTA (JP): West is West and East is East, but people from the two places can indeed form a good team. It was plainly shown in Face to Face, a rare performance by Gusmiati Suid from Indonesia and Joachim Schloemer from Germany.

The performance featured Gusmiati Suid's Asa (di Ujung Tanduk), (Hope -- Despite a Tense Situation, but it literally means "at the tip of the horn") and Joachim Schloemer's Stadt - Land - Fluss (City - Country - River, a popular guessing game in Germany). It was performed at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta for three days last weekend.

Face to Face consists of two pieces of choreography with five dancers of Suid's Gumarang Sakti Dance Company and five from Schloemer's Tanz Theater Basel joining talents to perform to the compositions of a group of musicians from Padang, West Sumatra.

It was the result of a four-week-long workshop organized by the Goethe-Institut and the Swiss Embassy, in Depok, which is home to Gusmiati and her troupe.

The two pieces shared more in common than some expected in view of the different cultural backgrounds of the two choreographers, with the Minangkabau culture of West Sumatra versus the Folkwang School of Essen, Germany. Both had a dream- like, surrealist quality to them with slow, floating movements underlined by sudden outbursts of action.

The first piece lasted a thrilling 30 minutes and was inspired by a consistent idea of longing. The uniform costumes were reminiscent of Japanese samurai dress; the men wore wide black pants and shirts with sashes, the women were in beige batik sarongs and black sleeveless blouses. Applause was spontaneous and whole-hearted.

During the second half of the evening, the audience entered a bizarre, hyperrealistic world of dreams, encountering jesters and introverts, a motorcyclist and two female waves on a stream passing by palm trees.

Occasionally the spectator was left guessing. Individual colorful costumes were chosen by J'Ferry.

The stage was taken care of by the simple but powerful means of German lighting man Lutz Deppe. His main instrument was a set of three gauze screens at the back of the stage changing color through orange, blue and green illumination.

'Horn'

Suid, who was substantially assisted by her son Boi G. Sakti, revealed the idea behind Asa: "It's about the problems of women in contemporary Indonesian society."

The "horn" points to Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose party symbol is a bull, whose aspiration to the Indonesia presidency is currently challenged by various groups under the pretext of Islamic law. For Suid, who comes from a unique culture that is profoundly Islamic and equally matriarchal, there can be no question about women being as capable as men in leading a community.

The legitimate desire to be treated on a par with male Indonesians can provide one line of interpretation, but it should not remain the only one. Asa is too rich a piece to be reduced to a pure political demand.

A constant theme, symbolic of the hopes and longings of the characters, is the liquid of life: water from a well, milk from the breasts of women.

At the onset, fabulous Fabio Pink, a dancer from Brazil, stands on the rim of a well scooping water that is subsequently handed on from dancer to dancer as a precious substance.

Skillful Sonja Rocha from Portugal dips her head into the liquid, wrings out her hair and feeds the liquid to the others.

The women hold their hands under their breasts, sprinkling something to the ground -- a symbol of fertility.

Women seem to be the holders of the essence of life and as such they need to be appreciated by men. In the final scene, the men carefully carry those who hold the precious substance in their hands or mouths.

Water can be symbolic of freedom, justice and love, but it does not have to be. Many of the erotic gestures and ecstatic dances are merely pleasurable to see and a kinesthetic experience that one wants to comprehend.

Town - Country - River is inspired by Schloemer's experience of exposure to the gardens, ponds and bamboo thickets around Gumarang Sakti's training center in Depok. The piece depicts a journey that leads out of a city, onto a river, into the countryside and back to town.

The five acts as indicated in the program brochure suggest an epic structure, however, no plot and no hero are to be found, and thus the allusion of epic form remains formal.

Town is recognizable by its motorcyclists as mimed by beautiful Ivonne Greselda. Clues for Country are dancers revolving around brooms they carry as if they were lurking around trees. River is nicely portrayed by two rows of dancers moving in opposite directions, one being the river, the other being the passing riverbank.

For the most part Schloemer plays in a humorous or even grotesque way with gestures, postures and dances sometimes evoking memories of puppets moving in a music box. Clown-like figures, reminiscent of Oskar Schlemmer's 1922 Triadic Ballet, travel in fixed orbits across the stage. They call to be named but the spectator guesses in vain.

Such playfulness puts the ratio at rest and helps to simply enjoy the abundance of Schloemer's imagination.

Shortage of time, the difficulties in communication and the high aspirations of the two artists put a strain on the collaboration between Suid and Schloemer. Most heavily affected by this were the dancers, many of them ill on the day of the performance due to the unaccustomed food and climate or simply from exhaustion. They deserve praise for their accomplishment.

Throughout, they performed with the meticulous care that the two choreographers demanded. Despite all difficulties, on the day of the premiere their will to perform was heroic and successful.

Many have grown beyond their former limits, such as the very young Jessica Koenig. Virginie Lauwerier can be confident of her talent as well as Gerald Durand. David Doang is a master of his trade. Aistyaningrum and Alvianto performed with grace.

From its premiere on Friday, the performance improved on the next two days when the intrinsic irony and wit of the second piece became more apparent.