Young dancers learning to let themselves go for `naughty' edge
Young dancers learning to let themselves go for `naughty' edge
Like most of the competitors at the Indonesia Dancesport
Championship 2003, 15-year-old dancers Denis Kosasih and Lucia
Adelaide Santosa are on the upward slope of a steep learning
curve.
In their first championship Denis and Lucia, two of the
youngest competitors in the field of 24 couples, made it to the
final of the beginners waltz competition at the Jakarta
Convention Center last Saturday night.
Although they have danced Latin together for five years, the
young pair from Yogyakarta started dancing waltz less than a year
ago. They did well as they were competing against a field that
has significantly improved since last year, said their coach Ita
Dyan Dwinita W.
Although dancesport, less formally known as ballroom dancing,
is relatively limited in its popularity, it is quickly gaining
recognition, including every Sunday night on TVRI's Dansa Yo
Dansa.
The graceful and physically demanding competition has
recently made significant strides worldwide to gain respect and
recognition as a sport rather than just an art form.
After nine years of lobbying from the International Dancesport
Federation (IDSF), in 1997 the International Olympic Committee
recognized ballroom dancing as a sport. At the 1998 Asian Games
in Bangkok, dancesport debuted as a exhibition event.
With the sport's growing popularity in Asia, the IDSF hopes
that China will include ballroom dancing in some form at the 2008
Olympics.
In the meantime the Indonesian National Sports Council is
working with the Indonesian Dancesport Organization to put on
events such as this championship to improve the caliber of
Indonesian athletes.
In dancesport, competitors compete in two disciplines:
standard ballroom (waltz, tango, slow foxtrot, quickstep and
Viennese waltz) and Latin (cha-cha, rumba, sumba, jive and paso
doble).
At the recent championships, competitors were divided into
senior (45 years and over), beginners, novice, preamateur and
amateur.
This year's event featured guest judging and two performances
by 1999 World Dancesport champions Matthew and Nicole Cutler,
from England and South Africa respectively.
The Cutlers have traveled and competed worldwide for over 10
years and Matthew Cutler said that he has been impressed by the
sports growth in Asia.
"Compared to some of the other countries in Asia, this is
quite a new country for this sport, so it is still growing,"
Matthew Cutler said.
Indonesia's opportunity for international success lies in the
grooming of its young athletes and this event plays an important
role in their development.
They can learn a lot here, competing and watching, and the
competition reinforces what they have been taught but from a new
angle, said Ita, who together with her husband, coached 22
couples competing in the event.
"What I have been really watching is the expression on the
dancers' faces," said Lucia.
Now that they see how important it is to express their
feelings when dancing, "it is what they really need to work on,"
said Ita.
"For me it's the hardest part of dancing," Lucia noted.
In fact, part of the problem for the couple is that they are
quiet people, said Ita.
"I have told them that they must express their own
personality, and step by step they have begun to be a little bit
more naughty," Ita said laughing.
"It's especially important for him," she said, looking over at
Denis.
"It's difficult for them, their parents want them to be
polite, it's Asian and very Javanese. But dancing, he must be
himself and show his own personality, he must be more expressive"
she said.
"In fact his true personality is a little naughty, but there
is pressure for him not to show it."
"It's very difficult to change your face to become a naughty
person, because I am a kind person," said Denis.
Judges look for confidence, spirit, and energy coming from within
the dancers, said Ita. So dancing requires that they build this
confidence to express their true emotion.
"We have to show the true feelings of ourselves. We should not
be nervous, we should be happy with the music and the dance. We
have to put our own self in the dance so that the dance becomes
alive," said Lucia.
Matthew Cutler started dancing at the age of eight and said
that dancing has an important positive impact on young people.
"Being a teenager is quite a difficult time anyway, and
developing confidence is so important during this period. Dance
can play an important role in this," said Cutler.
Besides confidence, success in dance sport requires finding
the right partnership, said Ita.
"A couple must have one durian and one kedondong (a plum-like
fruit)."
"They make a great pair," said Ita, "because she is sweet and
gentle on the outside and hard inside like a kedondong, but he is
hard on the outside but sweet on the inside like a durian."
-- Jock Paul