RP dance troupe brings fiesta to Jakarta

RP dance troupe brings fiesta to Jakarta

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): The Araullo University Dance Troupe was the last
of the foreign participants in the Jakarta Festival of the
Performing Arts, but they almost didn't make it.

On the way from their hometown, Nueva Ecija, to Manila the
company was hampered by an accident that occurred on a bridge
they had to pass and which took some three hours to clear before
they could continue on their way. By then the plane had already
left, of course, and after being stranded in Singapore for a
night, they finally arrived in Jakarta.

Just as well Gedung Kesenian Jakarta had no other program
scheduled for the 29th so the two performances went on as
planned. Otherwise we'd have missed a lively fiesta.

One element that stood out from the performance of the troupe
was that the dances they performed were not over-choreographed or
arranged to an extent that required dancers to follow certain
rules. Otherwise that would have turned the presentation into
more of a form of artistic movements based on established rhythms
rather than an expression of the gamut of emotions through dance.

Example: to learn the waltz as danced at a party, takes, say,
half an hour -- alright! two hours, if you happen to have two
left feet. But it would take years and years before you'd be
considered acceptable to take part in the type of waltz featured
in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake or Nutcracker even if your feet are of
the correct kind -- right and left.

Of course, for a stage presentation of folk dances, some
choreography is in order. However, the emphasis of the troupe's
performance was firmly on "fiesta," time to celebrate, time to
have fun, time for partying, though some of the programs' items
like Canao Festival and the dances from the Muslim people in the
south did have ritualistic overtones that called for a modicum of
choreography. So did the dance called Kuntao-Silat based on
movements of a type of martial arts which has an equivalent in
Indonesia. Music for the dances was provided by two guitars and a
mandolin, except for the dances from the Muslim people which
featured percussion instruments and a different tone structure,
i.e. pentatonic scale.

The troupe's performance was also a demonstration of the many
elements which both the Philippines and Indonesia share. For
instance, some indigenous tribes in Kalimantan also have a dance
form in which bamboo poles are used. As for outside influences,
the dance kuntao derives from a type of martial arts that hails
from China. But it is the Spanish/Portuguese dance rhythms and
music that were most prominent in the troupe's presentation.

Take, for instance, the dance called Habanera Botolena.
Literally, it means a habanera (the name of the dance -- though
habanera could also refer to a dance from Habana, probably
identical to Havana in Cuba) from the area of Botolan. Likewise,
the Jota Moncadena means a jota from the area of Moncada. You
find this type of indicating a dance's (or music's) origins in
Spain as well. Terms like sevillana and malaguena refer to dance
or music from, respectively, Seville and Malaga.

Similar dance forms have also been accepted in North Sulawesi
where the katrili (quadrille) and the lansye (lanciers), along
with the waltz, polka and polones (polonaise) have been adopted
by the people of the Minahasa. Although these social dances
arrived here (and in the Philippines) courtesy of the Iberians,
none of them are actually of Spanish/Portuguese origin. The waltz
is German/Austrian, the polka comes from Bohemia, the polonaise
from Poland, and the quadrille and lanciers hail from France.

Dances for thanksgiving occasions, wedding dances, dances that
imitate movements of pomelo leaves, the various ways of wearing a
sarong, of scratching away an itch, of cockfighting, and of
course the kind you'll find in any culture anywhere in the world:
courtship -- including one featuring a man who gets clobbered by
the woman he's wooing and the wife he already has.

And of course, the troupe also performed what has become the
national dance of the Philippines, the tinikling, in which the
dancers hop in between bamboo poles slammed together in ever
increasing tempo. A potential bone-crusher is this dance, but
seasoned artists that they are, none of the dancers got a foot
caught.

What matched the wide variety of dances were the costumes worn
by the dancers. These ranged from western type dresses to ethnic
outfits. Of the latter, the Canao Festival dances featured native
textiles woven according to the ikat technique. At least, that
was what it looked like from a distance. Unfortunately, by the
time the program had come to an end and we had the chance to chat
with the company backstage, most of the outfits had already been
packed, so I couldn't get a closer look at the cloth.