Sen Hea Ha dazzles with inimitable dances

Sen Hea Ha dazzles with inimitable dances

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): Watching Sen Hea Ha dance is to get one step
closer to attaining nirvana. If birth is little except a
temporary separation from the whole, as the yogis put it, then
indeed the best way to spend a lifetime is to look for that path
which will lead back to where you once belonged.

A performance of Lux Aeterna by Ha is one such experience
transporting all those into a temporary world of bliss who are
trying to conquer duality that insists on dragging the soul
sometimes to the right and at other times to the left.

Danced to the haunting voices of Gyorgy Ligeti's choir from
the church, and clad in folds of gray and red silks, Ha's
ethereal figure seems to surrender completely to the pure mind
principle in an already charged atmosphere made even more
effective by the special light effects of Hengki Riva'i.

Ha performed five other numbers, all in her inimitable style
that is a beautiful blend of modern ballet, mime and ancient
Korean dance movements, at Gedung Kesenian's International
Festival 2000.

A graduate of the Arts Department of Kyungsung University and
artiste with the Baegimsae Dance Company in Korea, Ha moved to
the USA in 1993. Fascinated with the subject of dance ethnology
and Korean American shamanism, Ha soaks her performances in
spirituality.

With her head shaved clean and her body as if starved thin to
resemble that of an ascetic, she appears on stage radiating
plenty of energetic glimpses into the other world. The aura of
her performance is further heightened by the breathtaking design
of her costumes tailored mainly by herself and Yoon Mi Choi.

Her choice of music, which is a combination of Gregorian
chants (Western sacred music of the Middle Ages) and the sound of
Buddhists in search of nothing in dark and damp caves, only
hastens the journey towards moksha. It is sheer delight even to
watch her toe as it twitches and turns anyway she wants it to.

As goddess of mercy she is wrapped in pastel colors of satin.
In the breathtaking piece entitled Incarnation, she invokes
energy from space dressed in transparent, billowing pants and a
top made from lemon green materials that look like muslin.

In Lineage she makes herself resemble Charlie Chaplin although
she performs a piece from a Korean shamanistic ritual as if she
were made of rubber. In this number a shaman has transformed
himself into a general and arrives to honor the spirit of fallen
heroes.

The idea is to pay homage to ancestors and to keep one's self
rooted in the past even as the struggle is to flower in the
present.

Appearing in traditional robes of white, Ha performs
Resurrection as if she were a butterfly, symbolizing a woman's
desire to liberate herself.

In the last number of the evening Ha is a witch, at times a
good one and often a bad one, riding high on her broom between
the twin realms of the imagination and the real world.

Apart from her solo items, Ha also presented some of the
choreography that she has done with Javanese dancers.

The dreams and realities faced by women everywhere were staged
by six Indonesians. While Ha concentrates mainly on fancy flights
from the material world into the spiritual one in her solo
performances, she has the dancing feet of her Javanese women
planted firmly on this earth.

The dreams and realities experienced by women in the city of
Solo were performed by earthy female survivors who sure knew how
to laugh at themselves. Through not just dance and music but
also using plenty of humor and drama, local dancers shared with
the audience the secrets of how they cope with the modern world,
forever clinging to hope in often hopeless situations.

In Beautiful Women, Ibu-Ibu, Ha joins her Javanese colleagues
in a moving tribute on stage to all members of society,
especially mothers.

The wait now is for the day when Ha will perform once again in
Jakarta.