RI should start professional ballet company: Tamara

RI should start professional ballet company: Tamara

By Mariam Sutalaksana

JAKARTA (JP): A former principal dancer for Martha Graham
company, Helen McGehee, once said, "You don't choose dance, it
chooses you." If that statement rings true in Indonesia, then
perhaps only a handful of individuals are chosen to be ballet or
modern dancers in Indonesia.

The world of ballet and modern dance in Indonesia is young and
the quality of both the performers and choreographers cannot and
should not be compared to those abroad, such as the New York City
Ballet or the Lyon Opera Ballet who were in Jakarta last March.
However, there are a handful of individuals who, in the struggle
to continuously improve the quality of ballet and modern dance,
have decided to embrace this art seriously. Among them is Maya
Tamara, the director of the Namarina School of Ballet, Jazz and
Fitness, who has consistently lived and breathed dance both as a
choreographer and a leader to her school.

This friendly and confident lady in her mid-30s recalled in an
interview with The Jakarta Post her early dance training and her
journey as a performer and a choreographer in Indonesia. The
interview, which started as a getting-to-know-you question-and-
answer session, turned into a warm discussion ranging from
questioning the quality of male Indonesian dancers to the
position of ballet amidst the rich tradition of local dances.

Question: What should I call you?

"You could just call me Maya," Tamara said while she brought
with her a few booklets on her school and some programs on past
performances of Namarina. In them, her dance training history was
laid out. Upon graduation on July 1981, this mother of boys aged
eight and four, became the first Indonesian to receive three
degrees from The Royal Academy of Dancing, London, which were
LRAD (Teacher's Diploma), ARAD (Dancer's Diploma) and AISTD
(Teacher's and Dancer's Diploma National Branch ISTD). While she
started dancing at the age of five, she professes she had always
enjoyed dancing and was never forced to become a dancer by her
mother the late Nanny Lubis, a pioneer of Indonesian Ballet.

What exactly did you learn at the Royal Academy of dancing?

Some of the courses that I studied were anatomy, classical
ballet, music, history of dance, Laban notation, modern and jazz
and national dances. But I concentrated mostly in classical
ballet, as my degree represents.

And could you explain a little bit about your activities in
Indonesia?

"I came back in 1981 and became the artistic director
alongside my mother who was the director then. I performed
until ... in 1986 I got married to an entrepreneur in graphic
design who is also my technical advisor for the productions and
decided to quit performing and concentrate as a director and
choreographer."

Tamara decided this when at one time she was dancing as
Giselle on stage and forgot to throw her flowers because she
worried too much about whether the dancers were ready to enter,
or whether the costumes were right. Tamara is now preparing to
regenerate the Namarina school.

"Ever since my mother passed away in 1993, I am now both the
executive director as well as the artistic director. I am in
search of who's the best to replace one of my positions. I don't
know yet. I'm also trying to clean up the internal management of
my school. This year is also the 40-years of Namarina and some
programs are lined up for its celebration. I've also been asked
once again by the government to choreograph for PON (National
Games) this year. You see, here (in Indonesia) once they're
comfortable with one person they tend to stick to that one
person."

Have you thought about asking one of you children to follow in
your footsteps?

"I don't think my eldest son would, but maybe the youngest.
He's only four years old. Now what we really need are male ballet
dancers, there are already thousands of female dancers."

Tamara believes most of the male dancers start their training
late, sometimes in their 20s.

"Maybe because there are not too many of them, they study at
many different schools of ballet and dance with different dance
groups and do not stick to one school. I suppose they dance at
different places to earn a living. However, it becomes hard to
train them to a maximum level of technique."

I saw some male dancers at a Namarina performance last month
in the piece The Best of Times, I suppose they are not from your
school?

"No, they occasionally take classes here but are not full-time
students."

When asked to describe ballet's position in Indonesia's dance
scene, she comments that people here have a misconception about
ballet as a dance from the West. She thinks ballet should be seen
as international.

"I think Indonesia should start an official professional
ballet company that would represent this country. For example,
Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore already have a national
ballet company. Some dance groups here call themselves
professional but are not managed like one."

Tamara's idea is a dance company with up to ten dancers
working full time under professional management. She did not deny
the need for massive funding and sponsorship, nevertheless she
thinks it is possible.

"We probably would need to pay these dancers about US$500 a
month and we need someone to concentrate fully in the running of
such a company."

The problem now, according to Tamara, is that many qualified
teachers, choreographers and dancers usually own a school so
their minds are split, and it would be hard to achieve maximum
results with the shared concentration and efforts.

You think the dancers would be willing to work full time as
dancers?

"I am pretty sure those dancers who love this field would
right away leave their current professions to dance if such a
company is realized. Dancing in a company is different than
dancing at school, this would help improve on the quality of
dancers. The competition is greater."

Tamara also commented on the slight incompatibility of ballet
to the Indonesian body. She described the situation of dark skin
under lighting looks bluish, while yellow skin would look pale.
However, she still thought it should be adopted as technique. Her
hesitation to call foreign choreographers to set a dance piece
for her school was to encourage Indonesian choreographers to
create and to avoid the perception that Indonesians are only fit
as dancers and not creators.

Tamara believes that ballet when handled by Indonesians would
have the characteristics of Indonesia. Rather than diminish, it
should enrich the Indonesian dance culture. She said she would
not create, for example, a nude dance, like an American might.

"I would probably create on the basis of ballet but I would
follow the norms of our culture, in terms of costumes and
sometimes themes."

Tamara explained that a ballet based on Indonesian stories,
for instance, on Siti Nurbaya or Malin Kundang, may be possible.

This lively woman is still searching for a successor for her
school to achieve her ambition to start a professional ballet
company. Judging from the 40 years the Namarina school has
operated, and her experience in Indonesia, Tamara believes that
interest in and the quality of Indonesian ballet has increased.
She mentioned a couple of hopefuls from her school's fifth
generation such as Adella and Aletta. The audience for the
Indonesian ballet has also grown from the parents-of-dancers to a
more general public. As for the future of Indonesian professional
ballet, even if other ballet figures in Indonesia such as Farida
Feisol or Cici Dumais start a company first, Tamara said she
would still support their efforts wholeheartedly. Maybe with the
right kind of backing, an official company for dance could come
into existence, like the Twilight Chamber Orchestra for music.