There are some interesting utterances expressed by Indonesian dancers and choreographers regarding to the concept of dancing body, which implicitly revealed the relation between the concept of body and cultural identity.
When I helped to edit the articles in the program book for Calon Arang performance, a collaboration between Retno Maruti and Bulantrisna Jelantik, Bulantrisna advised me not to forget to mention Biang Sengog as her teacher. The reason was because, as rumor has it, Biang Sengog, the legong dance master from Peliatan village, is one of the few, if not the only one, who teaches legong dance which still preserves a‘unique’ Balinese style, with back posture arching in precarious balance. According to Bulantrisna ‘…many of the legong dance have been too influenced by Javanese style of dancing, such as the back position which tends to be upright’.
Meanwhile, the Javanese classical dance acknowledges several differences between the techniques of Yogya and Solo (which is also divided into Paku Alaman style and Mangkunegaran style). The Yogya style – perhaps similar to the batik pattern which is more defined and simple – is known for its frugal movements compared to the flowing style of Solo.
Retrospecting to almost a decade ago, the late choreographer Gusmiati Suid often mentioned ‘rasa Minang’ (the sense of Minang) which refers to a dancer’s movement. In the early years of her transfer to Jakarta, Ibu Yet – that is how people oftren called her, had in a few occasions been criticized because she was only willing to work with dancers with Minangkabau origin whom she recruited straight from West Sumatra. This is a statement that she later denied (I had personally asked her about this). It was not until more recent years that she began to recruit non-Minang dancers who were mostly Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ) students coming from various ethnicities.
When her company, Gumarang Sakti, collaborated with Basel Tanztheater which was directed by German choreographer Joachim Schlömmer in 1999, Gusmiati had to train the young dancers from various European countries so that they could become fluent in the vocabulary of movements of Gumarang Sakti dance which is based on Minangkabau martial-arts. For two-weeks they were training vigorously in Depok Studio, and Gusmiati was quite impressed by their achievements. However she still said, “ ..they technically have mastered it, but yet there are no sense of Minang”. When I watched the dancers of Singapore Dance Theatre rehearsed the same choreographic number, Asa Di Ujung Tanduk (literally means, Hope on the tip of a horn, but later the title changed to Lost in Space) two years later in their ‘luxurious’ studio I felt quite surprised seeing the balletic bodies performing similar movements, but with the quality so different, even in comparison to the European young dancers who only had two weeks time to rehearse. At that point, – with longer resume as an ‘audience’ of Gumarang Sakti dancers’ rehearsals- I finally got the idea why ‘rasa’ (sense) had been becoming a problem.
One more thing, which is the last example. The Papua-Javanese choreographer, Jecko Siompo, was participating in the 3rd Asian Dance Conference in Tokyo in February 2007. In one of the sessions, Jecko was required to explain about the concept of his movements, and then it was revealed that instead of particular ‘dance techniques, what he actually adopted was the daily movements of the Papua people which he observed mainly in Jayapura. “I saw them moving (on daily bases) and what I saw was they were actually ‘dancing,” said Jecko that time while demonstrating the ‘gestures’ which he implied. But since these daily movements and gestures are infused with very spesific local cultures, which refer to the diverse characteristics belonging to each Papuan tribes, the movement ‘appeared’ as a dance for Jecko who was then still studying in Dance Major at Jakarta Institute of the Arts (IKJ).
**
Dance Studies: An Overview of Discourse
The study of the body and corporeality have actually existed for quite sometime in the periphery of mainstream discourse domain. Before the body later developed into a thriving industry in the 1990s which gave birth to what we are calling now as the ‘body project’, a project which was materializing through seminars, conferences and book publications that used the body as its title or main theme. (Thomas, 2003). The body theories have eventually spread into the dance world in recent years, especially those which are focusing on issues of representation and gender differences.
Mary Douglas (1966) saw that the body is an image or imagery of the society, and since the concept of nation is also defined in corporeal terms: that nations have boundary lines, life energy-blood, vitality, hygiene: it can be a source of apprehension while its wound can be preserved on behalf of nasional pride (Burt, 1998).
Indeed, the social constructionist appoach saw that the body as constructed, delimited, and even created by society (Shilling via Thomas, 2003). Thus for them the body is more or less a social entity. Their argumentation is in contrast to the naturalist point of view which analyse the body as merely biological or natural phenomenon.
Meanwhile the anthropological study of the body is based on the notion that dance is a cultural construction (Buckland, 1999). This perspective obviously marked the shift from dance investigation as culture in an Arnoldian terms, into a definition of dance as social products. Consequentially, culture is no longer perceived as the single symbol of civilization, but accepted instead as cultures to point out its plural and relative aspects—which corrseponds to the society which invent and practice it. This approach is potential for creating investigations that are free from hierarchy, so that all forms of dance, -from street-dance to classical ballet; from bhangra to butoh – becomes an object worthy of inquiry, not limited to the practices and tradition of dance coming from Europe and Northern America only.
The abovementioned two mainstream approaches and the various interdisciplinary approaches used by cultural analysis which have partly informed contemporary dance historians and then revised contemporary dance history which initially was claimed as something uniquely belong to American culture. Susan Manning, for example, bring forth become known through her published dissertation entitled, berjudul Ecstacy and The Demon: Feminism and Nationalism in Mary Wigman Dances (1993). There she discussed the dance trajectory of Mary Wigman, one of the disciples of the movement philosopher Rudolf van Laban. Mary who had led a long life (deceased in early 1970s) inherited numerous works that passed through several German political system eras (Weimar republic, NAZI and post World-War II). Wigman’s influence in the United States was nevere discussed before, if was not nonexistent, although she had tours to the US and one of her student, Hanya Holm, opened a dance school in the country.
This ground-breaking was then extended by Ramsay Burt who unambiguously stated his ambition to become a revisionist in his book, Alien Bodies: Representations of Modernity, ‘Race’ and Nation in early modern dance (1998). With a level of incisiveness that managed to astound me, Burt revealed how the discourse of modernity, nationalism and rasism is inscribed on the dancing body by appraising not only the development of ballet and modern dances, but also the juncture between the two genre of dances performed in different spatiality: performing dance as theatre dance and dance as entertainment and social dancing.
Meanwhile, Indonesian dance a subject is also examined as a study about performance art that have developed in the past three decades. The most recent editorial note of Indonesia & the Malay World journal has covered this issue (Cohen, Lopez y Royo, Noszlozpy, 2007):
Until recently, the symbolic anthropology oof the late Clifford Geertz (p.2) has been the dominant approach in the study of Indonesian expressive culture. The second approach is rooted in the ethnomusicologist, Mantle Hood’s work on the ideals of bi-musicality. Another perspective is the Asian theater study model close to the program being developed in University of Hawai’I (ibid). These three approaches emphasize synchronic analysis over the diachronic, and tend to idealize certain performance as more ‘authentic’ than the others..
More dynamic approach and model to study Indonesian performance art are emerging. A fresher approach is those based on the academic discipline —some call it anti-discipline- of performance studies. Performance studies have encourage the de-exotization of Indonesian performances by showing their commonalities with other cultural practices elsewhere in the world (h. 3), including in the theoritical framing of the body.
For non-Western cultures other than Indonesia (for the time being I call it this way) some writings have started to dig deeper than just a chronological writing of dance history canons, -particularly those that relate to theatre dance – such as can be seen the case studies of Japan, Taiwan and India.
Dance experts and critics in Japan, for instance, often argue about two embodiment theories that shed some lights on phenomena of the dance development post- Tatsumi Hijikata (the originator of butoh). Such as the theory of ‘child body’ which was asserted by Keisuke Sakurai (2007) and Daesuke Muto (2007) who came up with political and economy analysis to look into the same phenomenon.[2]
The dance scholars in Taiwan began by producing comprehensive studies on Lin Hwa-min works for the past thirty years. There are at least four doctoral dissertations that writes about the various aspects of Lin Hwa-min’s work. Lin’s choreographic works have indeed become the reflections of Taiwan history as a post-colonial society, most of all related to its international conflict with People’s Republic of China. Lin’s works have been studied by dance sociologists, anthropologists and historians by contextualizing various discourses that could explicate Lin’s works within diffeent periods and perspectives (see, among others, Chao Yu-ling, Cheng Ya-ping and Lin Ya-tin). In 2007, there has even been a conference that particularly discuss about Lin Hwa-min and works, which was followed by a publication of the papers presented by the both Taiwanese and non-Taiwanese dance scholars.
In India, the rise of bharatanatyam as ‘Indian national dance’ not long after the country gained independence from the British colonialization have been denounced by several dance scholars who reconstructed the nationalisation of bharatanatyam which had marginalized other traditional dances, such as Odissi (Chatterjea, 2004). Meanwhile, the works of choreographer Chandralekha have at least been discussed and read from two interesting point of views of Rustom Bharucha (1997) and Ananya Chatterjea (2004).
Indonesian Dance: The Written Bodies
With the diversity of ethnics and dance cultures in Indonesia, body and corporeality are rare subjects of discussion. This is at least reflected through the articles published in mass media. Whether this could reflect the discursive products generated by graduate scholars of arts academy would need to be further proofed bibliography studies.
Such as mentioned earlier, initially the body is seen as either social or cultural construction. The perspective that the body is already a written by its external discourses has dominated the structuralist thinking. The Thai people’s bodies, for example have been mostly ‘inscribed’ by Budhist Theravada philosophy (Fukuen, 2006).[3]
In dance, this has often been reflected in the movement based on dance techniques which have become a standardized (pakem) ‘esthetics’. Herein the classic dance of Central Java principalities is founded on movements that flow along with gravitational forces, which is different than, let say, Chinese classical dance which tend to reach vertically, marked by the tiptoeing position of the feet and hands movements that seems to be preparing for take off .
The classical Javanese dance, for instance, takes roots in the Javanese philosophy which is influenced by Hinduism and Budhism dating back to the pre-Islamic era. The philosophy underlined by the concept of harmony or balance between the macrocosmos and microcosmos (Murgiyanto, 1991), has shaped the concepts of ‘alusan’ (refinement) and ‘gagahan’ (valiancy) vis-à-vis the concept of ‘kasar’ (violence). The origin and esthetics of Javanese classical dance has been unraveled in two manuscripts, Risalah Tari Jawa dan Terminologinya (Javanese dance manuscripts and its terminilogy, written by Siri Mangkunegara VII) and Serat Wedhataya.
Chinese classical dance, for example, have conceivably undergone various appropriations which are becoming the local scholar subject of investigation. When the nationalist faction, overthrew the Chinese emperor dinasty in 1911, which was later intensified by the communist, Chinese classical dance experienced major transformations. The classical dance have been influenced by ballet techniques, such as marked by the hands and feet movements (interview with Liu Qi, choreographer, 2006).
Meanwhile, different things apply to, let say, the concept of dance and body in Minangkabu cultural context. Stemming from Minang martial arts (silek) movement, what is being defined as a ‘dance’ is actually a pancak, often comprised from the series of balabek (martial art flowers or detailed movements). Pancak is usually framed by the concept of ‘pamenan’ (games) and become one of the main elements of randai – Minang folk theater which combines oral literature, martial-arts and music. The essential stance of Minang martial art movement is ‘waspada’ (alertness) (Gusmiati, interview, 1999), a definition which was extracted by Gusmiati through a spesific gesture: although the eyes are staring to the fore, but one has to be able to sense any movements that happen outside the eyesight range. Different to the Javanese cultural context which possess many vocabularies to describe dancing movements (such as : mataya, lenggotbawa, tandhak, taledhek, beksa) in Minang ethno-linguistic apparently there is no particular word existed for dance. The term ‘dance’ is actually referring to the movements demonstrated by a hawk, such as revealed by Bagindo Fahmi, a Minangkabau cultural observer.
The primal tribal bodies such as existing in the diverse tribes in Papua also have their own contexts. In his presentation in Japan, such as explained earlier in this article, choreographer Jecko Siompo demonstrated some Papuan body expressions that he saw during his visit to Jayapura (which comprised of the variety of tribes that has its own customs and traditional practices). They are different from the stereotypical expression of most people in Jakarta. “For example, in the way a Dani tribesman greeted a guest that he just knew. It is not by shaking hands, he will jump and dance horizontally before the guest he is addressing to” said Jecko that time while demonstrating a Papuan movement (undefined tribe) while walking then sitting on a bench. Indeed the movement was rather animatic an unique compared to the way most Jakarta people move.
The primal movements (still strongly linked to nature) of the visitors in Jayapura that have inspired Jecko as a dance vocabulary which he later presented on stage.
To write on bodies
When modernity-via its various technology, including communication and information technology, offered new possibilities of acceleration and scopes of human mobility, then cultural interactions have eneterd into a new phase. Cultural exchanges – in every forms, modes and consequences, occur, the same thing also apply in the dance world.
Mis/representation have become one of the effect of interactions as such. A group of lengger dancers from Wonogiri were sent as ambassadors of the Netherland Hindies to Paris Expo in 1889, and there they were called as ‘the Javanese princesses’. In early 20th century, Paris was considered as a more conducive place to showcase experimental dance choreography, especially by some American modernists whose works were not so popular among the public back home. Loîe Fuller led the way, followed by Isadora Duncan. Fuller is more known for his visual manipulations, through light and stage directions which dominate his choreographic narration. His past works such as Snake Dance (which fragments was recently performed in Ballet Biarritz from France in Jakarta) have become the classical reference in contemporary dance history. It was Fuller also who produced Isadora Duncan’s performances and touring to several cities in Europe.
However, what has been rarely discussed in the canon of contemporary dance history is the performances of several dancers from Eastern countries in Paris which took place in the same period of time, such as Sadda Yakko – the former geisha who performed with a experimental theater led by her husband Otojiro – which was also sponsored by Fuller. Some say that even Isadora herself was deeply impressed by Yakko’s dance. And the 20th century was also marked by the profilerating processes and practices of Orientalism in dance art—whether it is done by Occidentalist or by the Orientalists themselves.[4]
Ironically, these later works have been a very rare topic of dicussions among dance experts. The figures such as Udday Shankar, for example – who performed in Paris in the 1930s – have seemingly been put aside from the history of Indian contemporary dance. While in fact, a figure as such has contributed in projecting the representation of ‘Eastern bodies’ as the other of the narration that later on becomes theoritically dominant.
While in Indonesia, the roles of figures like Raden Jodjana has not been widely discussed, it was covered by the dance history post-colonial discourses which tend to highlight a group of choreographers who are now considered as the founding persons of Indonesia contemporary dance history. Jodjana is considered more as a simple dancer who went abroad and because of it seen as an orientalist. His role as a modernist who shaped Javaneseness as a ‘subject’ –the representation of the Other- – in Western discourse has also been brought up by Matthew Cohen in the article I quoted earlier (2007).
The post-colonial framing tend to dominate the historicity of dance, especially beyond the Euro-American contexts: what is the role of the state, as the art patron in the post-independence era, how does the discourse on nation pervades the working process of modern choreographers. In Taiwa, for instance, the curiosity to detect the influence of Japanese occupation era to the recently emerging works as well as the critical studies that reconsidered the construction of bharatanatyam as ‘Indian national dance” where the role of educated class in the brahmin caste have been so vital.
Surely, writing about bodies offer various loopholes as well as possibilities, such as explored by Susan Leigh Foster in her essay, Choreographing History (1995). It remains as the greatest challenge for dance researchers and scholars to explore them further.
(Helly Minarti, researcher based in Jakarta. Her interest centers on dance and performance practice, particularly in an Asian context)
Bibliography
- Bharucha, Rustom, 1997, Chandralekha: Woman Dance Resistance, India: HarperCollins.
- Brakel-Pappenhuyzen, Clara, in collaboration with Ngaliman S, 1991, Seni Tari Jawa: Tradisi Surakarta dan Peristilahannya (Javanese dance: Surakarta tradition and its terminology , transl., Jakarta: Indonesia Linguistics Development Project.
- Buckland, Theresa Buckland, All Dances Are Ethnic, but Some Are More Ethnic Than Others: Some Observations on Dance Studies and Anthropology, Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Summer 1999), p. 3-21, retrieved from the internet on 10 May 2007 (artikel is copyrighted).
- Burt, Ramsay, 1998, Alien Bodies: Representations of Modernity, ‘Race’ and Nation in Early
Modern Dance, London: Routledge.
- Chatterjea, Ananya, 2004, Contestations: Constructing A Historical Narrative for Odissi, in Alexander Carter (ed), Rethinking Dance History: A Reader, London: Routledge.
- Chatterjea, Ananya, 2004, Butting Out: Reading Resistive Choreographies Through Works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chandralekha, Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.
- Cohen, Matthew, Dancing the Subject of ‘Java’ International Modernism and Traditional Performances, 1889-1952, in Indonesia & the Malay World, Vol. 35 No. 101, March 2007, p. 9-29.
- Cohen, Matthew, Alessandra Lopez y Royo and Laura Noszlopy, Indonesian Performing Arts Across Borders, in Indonesia & the Malay World, Vol. 35 No. 101, March 2007.
- Foster, Susan Leigh, 1995, Choreographing History (Unnatural Acts of Theorizing Performavity), ed, Indiana.
- Manning, Susan A, 1993, Ecstacy & Demon: Feminism and Nationalism in the Dances of Mary Wigman, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
- Murgiyanto, Sal, 1991, Moving in Diversity: Four Indonesian Choreographers, Phd. Dissertation , New York University.
- Thomas, Helen, 2003, Body and Cultural Theory, London: Palgrave, chapter one and two.
[1] My thanks to Soedarmadji JH Damais and Julianti Parani for their Saturday discussion sessions stimulated my thinking on this article. I bear full responsibility, however, for the opinions presented here.
[2] Based on their respective papers presented at the 3rd Asian Dance Conference, Tokyo, 6-12 February 2007.
[3] Paper delivered for 3rd Asian Dance Conference, Tokyo, 6-12 February 2007.
[4] For the case of Indonesia, particularly Java, see Matthew Cohen, Dancing the Subject of ‘Java’ International Modernism and Traditional Performance, 1899-1952, in Indonesia and the Malay World, Vol. 35, Number 101, March 2007.
