Intriguing Taman Sari in choreography

Intriguing Taman Sari in choreography

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The four female dancers look cheerful as they swim free-style in
the lagoon. From a hidden place, the eyes of a man feast
rapturously on the women's beautiful lithe bodies which are
wrapped only by an individual piece of wet cloth.

That must have been what stirred the imagination when we watch
a dance performance titled Greget Tamansari (Intriguing Water
Castle) on Sunday morning at Umbul Winangun (a bathing pool with
a fountain) in the Taman Sari (Water Castle) compound at
Yogyakarta Palace.

The compound, built between 1758 and 1765 during the reign of
Sultan Hamengku Buwono I, used to be a royal resting place apart
from serving as a defense fort.

As a royal park, this place is completed by a number of
bathing pools and a resting place beautifully arranged with an
artificial forest. It is also a defense fort as it has a lot of
inter-connected underground tunnels leading to a secret place.

On particular days, the sultan and his consort plus the royal
family would be here for a trip and for meditation in search of
peace of mind. This area, located in the south-west of the
Yogyakarta Palace compound, is completed with various facilities,
including a special site for meditation and contemplation at
Pulau Panembung and Sumur Gumuling. Unfortunately, most of this
historical building now lies in ruins as a quiet witness of
history.

Last Sunday, Beghawan Ciptaning, a choreographer of the
Indonesian Institute of Art (ISI) of Yogyakarta and some dancers
from Yogyakarta and Surakarta attempted to reconstruct history.

Ciptaning tried to blend the spatial concept of this old
building with the interpretation of the behavior of the nobility
in the past.

"We used the approach of behavioral interpretation
choreographically on the basis of our observation of the
environment, both esthetically and architecturally, with the
support of historical facts. A cultural site is not merely a
place for a performance, but it gives you the basic idea,"
Ciptaning said.

In his opinion, therefore, the product of this interpretation
must be choreography which stresses the reconstruction of the
behavior prevailing in a particular era, for example the behavior
in a rite or in daily conduct. This dance, therefore, was an
attempt to actualize past behavior.

The sites at the Water Castle that Ciptaning, along with the
Jogja Heritage Society, the Jogjakarta Iket Community, Reserves
of Historical and Archaeological Relics and the Post-Graduate
Program of the Indonesian Higher Learning Institute of Art (STSI)
of Surakarta, exploited are among others, Gedong Sekawan, Umbul
Winangun, Gapura Agung and Sumur Gemuling.

These historic places were linked in a performing art using
the Pradaksina concept (clockwise concept) in choreographic
movement.

The performing art began from the gate and Gedong Sekawan
(Four Buildings). The behavioral interpretation in Gedong Sekawan
was adjusted to the function of this building, namely as a
resting place for Keparak (royal assistants) assigned to
accompany and wait on their master while he was swimming and
enjoying himself. While waiting, they would prepare everything
needed for make-up and dressing or arrange flowers and sing at
the same time.

From Gedong Sekawan, the performance proceeded to Umbul
Winangun. This compound has three bathing pools, namely Umbul
Muncar, a water pool with a fountain located in the northernmost,
Belumbang Kuras, a large water pool with a fountain in the form
of a dragon's head that is designated only for women. At the
southernmost end is Umbul Winangun, which is used by the king.

Between these two royal pools, there stands a two-floor tower
with a number of resting rooms inside. You can also climb the
tower and look around from the top. From the window of the
uppermost room you can watch the activities in Umbul Winangun
bathing pool.

In this performing art, these activities were demonstrated by
four women dancers. Wading in shallow water, as the pool was not
filled fully with water, the dancers responded to the condition
of the pool while imagining how in the past the royal consort and
princesses were exchanging words to describe the beauty of the
love of a couple of human beings.

From Umbul Winangun, the performance proceeded to the yard of
Gapura Agung, which is a gate depicting the image of the owner's
grandeur. Behind the gate there used to grow various trees such
as flower trees, vegetable plants, lanseh trees, durian trees,
mango trees, nutmeg trees, banana trees, the cubeb, clove trees,
pandanus, canary, rose apple trees and coconuts.

It was in the yard of this Gapura Agung that the artists from
Yogyakarta and Surakarta presented a performing art depicting the
activities in the past, the present and the future. These
activities in three temporal dimensions go only to one
destination: The Almighty.

The symbols of man's journey to God were reinforced with a
procession towards the Sumur Gumuling compound. In terms of
structure, this Sumur Gumuling is a site for meditation and
contemplation. The building is round and has two floors,
resembling a doughnut.

This building, specially put up as a place where you can
escape the hustle and bustle of life, gives the impression of
possessing some magic power. It is here that the king and the
palace nobility prayed and meditated. In this performing art, the
movement of meditation and dance in the refined style looked
beautiful as they blended with the recesses of the windows of
this old building.

Unfortunately, this art performance by experienced dancers
like Yudhoyono, Wiwik and Beghawan Ciptaning was disturbed by the
unruly behavior of the audience. The atmosphere of peace and
quiet created through this ritual dance was lost because some
people and illegal photographers freely went to and fro.

In brief, this performing art was an attempt to delve deeper
into past values in an archaeological site. This art performance
could at least show to the present generation that the Water
Castle, which was destroyed by a earthquake on June 10, 1867 then
rebuilt, was not only a defense fort for the palace in the past
but that it was a place where the king made his excursions and
also a site where God was worshiped.