I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Two things that could fire up Bali‘s senior choreographer I Wayan Dibia early in the morning are contemporary dance and young choreographers.
He spoke so passionately about these subjects on a cool Wednesday morning that he kept forgetting to sip his favorite tea. The untouched tea got cooler and cooler as Dibia warmed to his topic.
‘There hasn‘t been enough space, metaphorically and literally, for our young choreographers to feature their works and to share their esthetic explorations with their peers and seniors,‘ Dibia lamented.
‘Similar things could also be said of our contemporary dance. The fact that Indonesia, particularly Bali, has a strong tradition of traditional performing arts has only made it more difficult for contemporary dance to gain a significant foundation,‘ he said.
The 59-year-old choreographer has experienced this difficulty firsthand. In 1978, the young Dibia, newly graduated from Yogyakarta‘s Indonesian Dance Academy (ASTI), stirred up a heated controversy in Bali with his creation Setan Bercanda/Playful Demons.
The dancers‘ ‘primitive‘ costume of dried leaves, the rudimentary musical accompaniment of stone and bamboo instruments, and the dance‘s indifference towards established conventions in Balinese traditional dance regarding impolite gestures and movements immediately made many call the dance ‘un-Balinese‘. Naturally, Dibia became a regular punching bag for the island‘s numerous cultural pundits for weeks afterwards.
‘Little did they know that every aspect of (Setan Bercanda) could be traced back to elements of ancient Balinese dances,‘ he said.
Soon Dibia had earned a reputation as the island‘s daring new contemporary choreographer. His years at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he received his Master and Doctorate degrees, had further inflamed his passion for contemporary art.
His recent works include Kali Yuga, a repertoire inspired by the Bali bombings, and Adhipusengara, a Balinese interpretation of the Greek tragedy of Oedipus. Kali Yuga has been performed already in several cities in the United States.
‘That difficult experience inspired me to provide our young choreographers and composers with a forum through which they can share their creative process, discuss their ideas and refine their works,‘ Dibia said.
The forum, The International Forum for Young Choreographers and Composers (IFYCC), will take place from Aug. 10-13 at GEOKS, Dibia‘s modest performing arts facility in Singapadu village, some 15 kilometers northeast of Denpasar. The gathering will be attended by three foreign artists and 15 Indonesian artists and composers.
‘The foreign participants come from Taiwan, Cambodia and Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Indonesian participants include talented young artists from Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya, Mataram and Kalimantan. It will be a celebration of cultural diversity,‘ he said.
The IFYCC is sponsored by Arts Networks Asia (ANA), a network of independent artists and cultural workers aimed at promoting collaborative cultural projects among and with Asian artists, along with New York-based Asian Cultural Council (ACC), which supports cultural exchange between Asia and the United States in the performing and visual arts, and Yayasan Wayan Geria, a foundation dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of performing arts in Bali.
The participants‘ dance and music presentations will be performed on the evenings of Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, while discussions and select performances will be held in the mornings of Aug. 12 and Aug. 13.
The IFYCC will close on the night of Aug. 13 with a cultural evening featuring the world-renowned Legong Saba troupe and a collaborative work created by the forum‘s participants.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (9 Agustus 2007)