Megalitikum Kuantum staged to mourn Bali blast victims

Megalitikum Kuantum staged to mourn Bali blast victims

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Although the mega-show, Megalitikum Kuantum, was only staged
twice, it now has a life of its own and has evolved into
something of a cultural institution.

It is an entity that remains so only in name while its
contents are modified to meet just about any objective.

Staged for the first time on June 29 and 30 to commemorate the
40th anniversary of Kompas daily newspaper, Megalitikum Kuantum
was again performed in its entirety at Garuda Wisnu Kencana in
Bali on Sept. 3, simply because the first show was considered a
success.

There has been talk of taking the show on an overseas tour.

An official with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism earlier
said the Megalitikum Kuantum, a show that mixed local pop music
and near-extinct traditional music, could make a good promotional
tool for Indonesian culture.

On Wednesday last week, the art performance -- in its
stripped-down version -- was once again staged to show solidarity
for those who perished in the recent Bali blast that killed 23
people and injured dozens of others.

Such solidarity was shown in a very Balinese way, with a
performance of the traditional kecak dance.

In its original shows, Megalitikum was staged with a lineup
consisting of artistes like self-appointed pop diva Krisdayanti,
teen popstar Agnes Monica, dangdut singer Iyeth Bustami and
scores of other pop performers.

In the show, 150 Balinese dancers who had already performed at
the Garuda Wisnu Kencana show, turned in a special and mystical
performance of the sacred Balinese dance.

An eerie atmosphere of gloom was palpable as dozens of dancers
burst out of the darkened porch of Bentara Budaya art gallery in
Palmerah Selatan, West Jakarta, to get to the center of the
stage, an open space surrounded by hundreds of torches.

The atmosphere alone provided a fitting backdrop for those who
had perished in the blast.

With customary kecak vocalizations, dancers made intense
movements that resembled a crowd in a trance-like condition.

The dancers were indeed entranced.

The knowledgeable audience, which learned that the kecak dance
had its origins in Sanghyang, an exorcism ritual in Balinese
society, quickly grasped why this fraction of Megalitikum Kuantum
was staged in the first place.

The ritual was held to cast away troubled spirits that had
died from unnatural causes, such as the heinous bombings.

In traditional Balinese society, participation in Sanghyang is
considered part of a religious obligation.

German artist Walter Spies helped to define the present form
of the kecak in the late 1930s.

In the light of a possible schism between the country's Hindu
and Muslim communities that could arise in the wake of the
bombings, the show's organizers took the opportunity to inculcate
tolerance from different believers.

The show was preceded by a dinner to break the fast and a
nightly Ramadhan prayer for Muslims who made it to the
performance.

With prayers being offered by believers from two different
religious traditions, we were given an assurance that those who
perished in the blast could now rest in peace.