TARI GANDRUNG (GANDRUNG DANCE)

TARI GANDRUNG (GANDRUNG DANCE)

There are always a thousand reasons to say ‘What a BEAUTIFUL Indonesia’

(GANDRUNG is a Banyuwangi traditional welcome dance)

TARI CAKALELE (CAKALELE WAR DANCE)

At first, I was trying hard to represent this theme with positive frame. But it is kind of difficult because this dance is about war, about fight, about anger, about frightening theme. And it is not the only war theme dance in Indonesia, we also have other war dance, Mandau Dance in Kalimantan, Caci Dance from East Nusa Tenggara, and other war dance from Nias, Papua, and Aceh (Prang Sabil Dance), It spread across the archipelago.

So I started to do little internet research on how people tried to describe and explain these dances in positive perspective. It is various and interesting in the way people framing the story of the dance. They come across many philosophies, and it is not necessarily the original one. For example, in one blog, they say, CAKALELE war dance that is often performed in front an honor guest, is a way of saying that the guest should be no worries about his/her/their safety, because the host which is represent by the dancer is good warrior and they will guarantee their safety. In another blog, people interprets  war dance as a dance that show a power and courage of local people that shown by their skill in using weapon, another said that the war dance is about knight spirit and heroism. I think we try hard to make the narrative positively compelling.

But I just thinking, HOW IF, these dances are truly about war, about fight, about blood, about trying to conquer any enemy or new pieces of land, or about being superior from others which is really relevant if we put this matter in to context (time and situation when this dance initially created). This idea challenges the whole concept of my August drawing and narrative project which initially about promoting Indonesia culture through positive interpretation. For example, how if, I hardly think of any good justification of one particular culture, such as cockfighting or bull fighting which has problem to deal with animal rights issue. Is it completely bad cultures? How If I suddenly I got an idea to frame it like this ‘When watching bull fighting or cockfighting, people do interact each other, this event became platform of social interaction of community’? Does it make any different?

So, this makes me realize that human can always interpret the cultures in the different way. It is not necessarily right or wrong. This is about framing, it is about perspective, and this makes our culture more vibrant and continuously alive.

PENCAK SILAT

Last weekend, I met a leader of Australian PENCAK SILAT group in one of Melbourne cultural events. His team performed PENCAK SILAT art on that event, while my group performed Saman dance. We have an interesting conversation while we were waiting to perform. I expressed my surprise of knowing that PENCAK SILAT is exist in Australia and the fact that there are Australian that interested in it. 

He told me a lot about PENCAK SILAT. He told that this martial art originally develop and grow along Sumatra, West part of Java, Malaysia, and some other South Asian countries. There is two kind of PENCAK SILAT, which are for self-defense and for art. And lot more facts and stories.  

Then I shared a story about my experience in practicing Silat when I was kid, even though it only reached the yellow belt which was the second level of the practice. Responding to my story, he then told me that he doesn’t have belt system in his Dojo (Silat School) here. He said, learning and practicing SILAT is about process inside us. It is a journey of heart, body, and mind. It is a way to understand ourselves, to be able to control ourselves, to grow, and to be better of human being. We don’t need a belt to describe ourselves, it is growing inside. SILAT is not only about physical skill but also spiritual maturity, and the belt system is quite hard to measure that.

Listening to his SILAT philosophy makes me to introspect myself. Do attributes and titles I have now, show who I really am? Do I have enough quality to engage with those title? Because it is really not about what people see, it is about the truth inside me.

SAPE’ (DAYAK BORNEO TRADITIONAL MUSIC INSTRUMENT)

  SAPE is one of Dayak tribe traditional music instrument.  When I am listening to SAPE, I always imagine that I am in the middle of Borneo rain forests. It is serene and noisy in the same time. It is like listening to another kind of orchestra when a drops of the dew, bird chirping, splash of the river create beautiful relaxing music. It is very peaceful. 

We talked about taking inspiration from nature the other day, and I thought SAPE is the other example of that. Living in the rainforest has brought up the nature calming melody to Dayak people music. Something that urban people can’t find in the city where honk of the car and the orchestra of annoying engine compete each other.

Suddenly I think about this. May be the hectic and noisy modern song we have today is inspired from our urban environment. I know that there is no point to compare both of music. But again it is interesting to realize that there is always correlation between what nature we live in and what culture we produce.

SERAMPANG 12

Sometimes, the only thing you need to do to cast away any sorrow is just DANCE

(The dance is originally from Malay tribe in North Sumatra (Deli Serdang)

RANDAI

I watched RANDAI for the first time when there was a student cultural festival a couple years ago and It is incredibly beautiful. RANDAI is traditional West Sumatra performance art that combines singing, dancing, martial art, and theatre. There is a story that being told for each performance. It usually delivered some important message to the audience.

Reflecting to this fact, I am just thinking what a beautiful approach that people in the past did to spread a message Trough art, through movement, through melody, through beauty.  In today live, may be this kind of thing has been forgotten. Sometimes, arrogantly, we force our thought, our principles, our message to other people. We hurt them in the way we talk and act. May be the message is right, may be it is really important, but with wrong attitude of addressing this intention, everything is going to ruin.

So, learning from RANDAI, we can change the way we communicate, with beauty, not violence.