Javanese dances opens the Schouwburg Festival

Javanese dances opens the Schouwburg Festival

Traditional Javanese dance, Bedhaya Sukoharjo, may not be the
best choice to open an arts festival in this day and age. Its
rhythmically lulling gamelan music and the meticulously slow
movements of the dance could send even the most wide-awake to
sleep.

So it was with great relief that the second half of the
Schouwburg Festival III that night was dedicated to a more
dynamic Panji Sekartaji, a dance drama about the fierce
competition between two kings in winning the hand of Dewi Galuh
Candrakirana.

Held again after a seven-year hiatus, this year's Schouwburg
Festival focuses on classical and traditional arts, which
accounts for the opening acts.

Besides the Bedhaya and Panji Sekartaji, the Keraton (palace)
Surakarta in Central Java also presented the dance Srimpi Ludira
Madu, created by Paku Buwono V, who ascended the Surakarta throne
in 1820 to commemorate the virtues of his mother.

On Sunday, the festival will move from traditional Javanese
dance to European ballet, with a performance from the Namarina
Ballet and Jazz Company.

Namarina dancers will present The Tree, choreographed by
director Maya Tamara, Rhythm of Life, choreographed by Sussi
Anddri and Mix Sense choreographed by Dinar Karina.

On the night of Sept. 9 and Sept. 10, Actors Unlimited Bandung
will present a play titled Musuh Masyarakat, taken from Norwegian
playwright Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People and translated
into Bahasa Indonesia by Asrul Sani.

From Italy, the Domenico Lafasciano Quartet will perform, on
Sept. 11, the music they played in tribute to the victims of the
World Trade Center attacks two years before, including Grief in
New York, Shanghai, Dirham, Metropolitan, and Forse un Giorno.

From Java to Europe: It is back to Java on Sept. 13 and Sept.
14 with some traditional Cirebon mask dances performed by Keraton
Kasepuhan dancers.

Taking the Schouwburg to a more spiritual level, the Sancta
Caecilia Katedral Jakarta and Exsultate Justi choirs will take
the audience through compositions from J.S. Bach's Singet dem
Herrn ein neues Lied (Sing unto the Lord a New Song), Allessandro
Scarlatti's Exsultate Deo, Frans Schubert's Gott ist Mein Hirt
(God is my Shepherd), and Mozart's Sancta Maria Mater Dei.

The Schouwburg Festival will close with a piano duet
performance by Iravati M. Sudiarso and Rudy Laban on Sept. 17,
2003. -- Tantri Yuliandini

The Schouwburg Festival from Sept. 4 through Sept. 17, 2003, at
Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Jl. Gedung Kesenian No. 1, Central
Jakarta. All performances are held at 8 p.m. For more information
call 3808283 or 3441892.