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.