Sardono gets international award

JAKARTA: Indonesian dancer-choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo has been awarded the Distinguished Artist Award by the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA).

The Sono Seni dance studio in Surakarta, Central Java, where the artist is based, said the award would be presented during a ceremony on June 20, as part of the society's 17th International Congress at the Esplanade in Singapore. The congress is taking place between June 18 and June 21.

The ISPA Distinguished Artist Award, first awarded in 1975, is presented to performing artists who have made an outstanding contribution of talent, artistry, dedication and service to the world of performing arts.

Past recipients include pianist Arthur Rubenstein (1976), jazz clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman (1982), opera, theater, and film director Peter Sellars (1990), mime Marcel Marceau (1992), Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (1994) and soprano Dame Joan Sutherland (1994). -- JP