Traditional performances find place in changing times

By Prapti Widinugraheni and I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): It is dinner time. A couple of Balinese dancers prance energetically onstage to the sound of lively traditional music. Foreign guests watch the show from their tables and move in closer to snap pictures with their pocket cameras.

This could be Bali, where dance performances are common attractions for tourists at many star-rated hotels and restaurants.

Yet the scene was in Jakarta, a city whose residents are supposedly so affected by the hustle and bustle of "modernization", "globalization" and everything else that displaces the fragile and traditional.

Jakarta, it turns out, still has its gentle side.

Look no further than Raden Kuring restaurant, the site of the dance performance. Instead of hiring a jazz band or a foreign singing group to entertain guests, it keeps traditional performances going, even if it's purely for the sake of attracting foreign tourists.

The restaurant operation manager, Soekardi, said the restaurant never intended to "go traditional" when it opened for business in 1986. The idea came from an employee.

"To my surprise, the employee said she could dance and was willing to perform," he said.

Raden Kuring began staging regular traditional dances and more employees became involved.

"In 1988, we started cooperating with several dance groups to make things more professional," he said.

The winner of last year's Adikarya Wisata tourism award now has two hour-long traditional dance performances every day. The dances originate from West Java, Central Java, Bali, Sumatra and Jakarta (Betawi).

He acknowledged the restaurant was unable to offer live traditional music because of limited funds.

"I believe what we are doing can still help preserve the country's traditions," he said.

Another place in Jakarta contributing to preserve the national heritage, albeit in quite a different way, is Hailai International Executive Club in Ancol, North Jakarta.

Traditional dances at this club are performed as opening acts for foreign pop entertainers.

Hailai's stage manager G. Aditya said his restaurant presented four traditional dances daily. The performances start at 8:05 p.m. and last 25 minutes.

The major entertainment lasts a full two hours. How do the two compare in cost and value?

Soeriatno Santoso, the club's director of operations, said a local group was usually paid Rp 400,000 (US$163) per day while a foreign singer got an average of $250 per show.

Yet there are still many niches for traditional entertainment.

Sampan Bujana Sentra, for example, is a place where people can get "something different", according to dancer and choreographer Sampan Hismanto.

His restaurant offers live traditional performances and music played entirely by his employees.

"I hire 40 personnel, each of whom can perform traditional dances and play traditional musical instruments," he said. Sampan Bujana Sentra is open daily, except Sundays, with a 90- minute traditional performance starting at 8 p.m.

"My major market is mostly foreign tourists. These are the things they are looking for," he said.

"But I would be more grateful if Indonesians also come here so they can understand more about their own culture and art."

Restaurants and other tourist spots are not along in the struggle to remind Indonesians of their national heritage.

Several television stations, such as Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI) and Indosiar, are also doing their part.

Theresia Ella Sari, TPI public relations manager, said the station aired traditional performing arts shows as it was "committed to prioritizing local products, including traditional arts".

The audience rating is low -- about 2 according to Survey Research Indonesia (SRI) -- and revenues from advertisers are in general insignificant, but TPI intends to go on with the show.

"There are times when programs shouldn't be created merely for the sake of commercial profitability, but for idealism as well," she said.

Popularity

She added that the popularity of traditional performing arts should not be underestimated despite the SRI ratings, which apply only to the major cities of Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan.

The reason TPI's wayang (leather puppet performances or traditional plays) programs were aired late at night was not because of unpopularity, she added.

"Live wayang plays, and many other traditional performances, in their original village setting only start late at night and end at dawn. So we don't want our audience to feel shocked or disturbed by airing such shows earlier in the day," she said.

The actual fans of TPI's traditional performances, most of whom are not covered in SRI ratings, are very enthusiastic, she said.

"Once, when our wayang show was not shown, we got hundreds of phone calls from all over the country asking about it."

Ella said TPI was almost likely to continue airing location recordings of performing arts because it was about three times less expensive than having traditional groups come to TPI's studio.

"We once tried studio shooting for such programs, but it was too expensive and advertisers weren't interested," she said.

"But if we discovered a good, reliable studio format (for this) plus the appropriate financial support, we'd choose the studio format."

Indosiar is another TV station whose proportion of traditional performances make up about 5 percent of a day's programs, comparatively large in proportion to the three other private TV stations.

The station, unlike TPI, has no plans to studio-record traditional programs.

Indosiar public relations manager Andreas Ambesa said the station would never consider the studio format, "because our audience prefers on location recordings". He added that it was also a lot cheaper.

The airing of traditional performing arts programs on Indosiar started as a purely non-profit project, he said.

"When Indosiar first went on air in 1995, it decided not to make segmentations of its audience," he said. "This means it was committed to making sure that everyone -- be it lovers of Hollywood films, soap operas, music shows and traditional performances -- could enjoy the station's programs."

The station's debut with traditional shows started on Aug. 17, 1995 when it aired a full 24 hours of wayang kulit shows.

"It turned out that the audience gave a very positive response, which we learned from the telephone calls and letters we received later on," he said.

Like TPI, Indosiar is circumspect about the SRI ratings, which give the programs ratings between 0 and 2.

"Our audience for these programs is in small towns and cities," he said.

"They're definitely not profitable programs, but over the years advertisers have become increasingly interested because they know that many high-ranking government officials like them."

One exception to the low profitability is Srimulat, a program aired every Thursday night, which is popular in SRI-covered cities with a rating of 12.

"Indosiar has managed to make the Srimulat cast very popular. Now they are asked to perform at various events," he said.