Indonesian dancers perform German poetry

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.