Indonesian dancers perform German poetry

Christina Schott Contributor Jakarta

Poems think was the title of one of Brigitte Oleschinski's anthologies. Sometimes they think loudly.

On Wednesday night Oleschinski, a German poet, presented her latest work Lautlesung at the Goethe Institute Jakarta. Her performance was unusual in that it was a fusion of the artistic expressions of two cultures, German poetry and contemporary Indonesian dance.

"Two languages brush against each other, two cultures - the language of dance, the language of poetry - where does the tangency begin?" wrote Oleschinski in the performance's program.

Director Amien Kamil and choreographer Aidil Usman translated Oleschinski's thoughtful poems into dance.

"We shine in the contrast between poetry and dance, language and body, tradition and present," explained Kamil, "a combination of live elements on stage with multimedia in the background."

Although the duality of words and movement was not erased, the colorful choreography succeeded in building a bridge between the tone of the German words and the Indonesian surroundings - not least due to the great musical arrangement of composer Jalu G. Pratidina. Unfortunately, the performance seemed to have been envisioned for a bigger stage and the sound-system was overloaded.

Thirteen poems were recited by the German author dressed in pink overalls, with mask-like make-up accentuating her puppet- like movements. All of the texts resulted from the impressions and feelings that overwhelmed Oleschinski during her former trips to Indonesia.

Tropical nights punctuated by mystic sounds and endless thoughts. The contrasts between luxury and poverty, power and helplessness, Western and Eastern personalities.

It was not so long ago, in April 2002, that Oleschinski visited Indonesia for the first time. She had been invited by the Indonesian "king of poets" Rendra to participate in the International Indonesian Poetry Festival.

There she met Amien Kamil, an actor, a dancer and a performer who had studied for almost 10 years at Rendra's famous Teater Bengkel. And that's where the two developed the concept of bringing Oleschinski's poems to the stage. Later, dance choreographer Aidil Usman joined the project. He had previously worked with choreographer/dancer Boi G. Sakti and had in the JakArt Festival.

"It was in Indonesia, where I learned what it means to perform poetry - so different from the German type of readings (that are) so dry that you need a water glass besides the book," says 49- year-old Oleschinski. "This country was very friendly to me, it gave me this amniotic fluid feeling, wrapped in the warm tropical air. Before my creative process was stuck, but here everything started to move again. So I agreed to the idea of transforming my poetry into a stage performance."

This fertile idea became Lautlesung which has already been performed in Cologne and in Berlin earlier this year.

Amien Kamil's ambition was to give these poetic thoughts a physical expression. The sometimes meditative, sometimes wild choreography tells us as much about introverted feelings or outer conflicts as Oleschinski does in her poetry recitations. The highlight of the performance is definitely the piece Rebel behind the screen, in which Aidil Usman dances while Bulgarian women sing Oleschinski's poems.

Still a direct connection between the poetry and the movement is not always evident.

Lautlesung certainly leaves questions open, but maybe that is its intention.

"Of course, you cannot fit both cultures together without any friction. Although the concept of our program is harmonic, almost meditative... it still includes a lot of contradictions," Oleschinski said. "But this is exactly the challenge and the task of art - to show these frictions and keep the thinking process alive."

Even the title Lautlesung plays with the possibilities of interpretation.

Laut ist der Klang, und Laut ist das Meer - der Klang wird gelesen, das Meer wird gelesen (Sound is the tone and sound is the sea - the tone is to be read, the sea is to be read) - starts one of Oleschinski's poems.

In German, the word lautlesung means the reading of sounds. In Indonesian laut means "sea" - and lesung a vessel to pound rice. All this means that not every expression can be translated literally.

Last year, Oleschinski recited her poetry at, among other places in Indonesia, on Madura island, in front of the students of a pesantren Islamic boarding school. Many in the auditorium may not have understood the meaning of her words (including "lust", "vomiting" or "vagina"). They may even have been shocked at the sight of the strange woman who wore the jilbab (veil) in a "pirate-like" style and started her reading with a penetrating cry.

Even so, after her performance she was surrounded by girls with shining eyes, congratulating her and saying that the German woman had exactly articulated their own inner feelings.

"I don't want to go," wrote Brigitte Oleschinski at the end of this visit to Indonesia as she was about to leave for Germany. "It's absurd, a cliche of the tropics, the European soul infected with its own projection of the foreign parts, but, I don't want to go."

Oleschinski has left Indonesia before but she has always returned. Hopefully she will come back again.