The dancers from Teater Teku, a theater group from Yogyakarta, performed in a play called Brungkat, which recounts the migration of people from the Majapahit kingdom to the slope of Mount Lawu, as told on the walls of the temple.
Dancing in silence: Artists perform in a play titled Appasili by Simon Abdul Murad from Makassar last month. The play took place in the yard of Sukuh Temple, Central Java, late December.
“The crisscross pattern [formed by the multitude of threads] depicts the migration of the Majapahit people, when the days of this large kingdom in Java were numbered,” said Ibed Surgana Yuga, the director of this drama.
Brungkat was part of Srawung Seni Candi Sukuh, a two-day celebration of art at the Hindu temple in Karanganyar, Central Java, on December 30-31.
In another performance, Frances Marzetti, an art therapist from Ireland, impersonated the Earth Goddess from her country, better known as Sheelagh, Sheela, Sile or Sheila.
The white-haired woman, clad in red clothes, moved slowly, her palms alternately facing the sky, transforming the shapes found on the temple reliefs into meditative gestures. She performed in silence, which took the lay public by surprise as they watched an unusually quiet show.
Javanese-US collaboration: Two artists, Annie Brook from the US (standing dressed in white) and Cempluk Lestari from Solo collaborate during the show.Other foreign artists also brought to the event performing arts sometimes hard to follow. The public’s enthusiasm remained high though, with crowds filling the temple’s grounds, hoping to get a better view of the rare performances.
Maya Cockburn from the UK performed another unusual dance. In her Crow, The Shapeshifter, she mimicked a crow flapping its wings and its harsh cries.
Once her hands stopped flapping, she stretched forward with one leg crossed and mumbled what sounded like a mantra, then jumped and stopped moving. A few moments later, she was flapping again and crying out: “ngaaakkk.. ngaaakkk”, inviting spectators to laugh wholeheartedly.
Purusa Pradana, a dance by Agung Rahma Putra and Kinanti Sekar Rahina from Bali, was probably the most “palatable” performance for an amateur audience. Based on the Hindu concept of creation, it emanated the warmth and sensuality of this pair of graceful dancers using long and broad scarves.
“This dance reminds us of lingam-yoni [the symbol for generative and procreative energy] inscribed on the walls of Candi Sukuh,” said Kinanti Sekar.
Purusa Pradana opened with the pair stepping down to the temple’s yard, dancing the way a couple of lovers would. Thereafter, both stopped on the left side of the main temple structure, where they mimicked a lingam (male reproductive organ) and yoni (female counterpart organ) in the process of creation.
Simon Abdul Murad from Makassar boasted his contemporary Appasili, which he created especially for the Candi Sukuh event. His movements were inspired by South Sulawesi’s traditional Pakarena dance. Candi Sukuh, which represents prosperity, according to him, also contains positive energy and the elements of virtue.
Involved in Robert Wilson’s music-theater show I La Galigo (based on a Bugis myth in South Sulawesi), Simon began his show by standing in the temple yard with a red scarf covering his bare chest and his waist wrapped in a yellow cloth.
He then walked slowly forward, moving to the sounds of a puik-puik, a traditional instrument. Simon then sat cross-legged in front of the temple, picking an earthen jug and putting it on his head. The jug broke abruptly drenching Simon, ending the play.
This year’s meeting of the arts concluded with Ketoprak Ngampung from Solo, a comedy-based folk drama group, presenting Rukun Agawe Santosa, a very amusing story promoting tolerance and harmony in a village chief election, which was unfortunately cut short by the pouring rain.
The works performed during Srawung Seni Candi attempted to push the audience and artists into reflecting deeper on the meaning of existence and the environment.
there’s no strict choreography, no conventions. I’m dancing instinctively,” said a dancer from Solo, Joko Bibit.
Artist in the spotlight: Simon Abdul Murad steals the limelight in one of the scenes of his play.As the program has always been strongly supported by many traditional as well as modern groups of artists from different regions, the boundaries separating representative and non-representative arts — the latter based more on tradition, instinct and intuition — are actually very slim.
“Eventually, arts are created out of dialogues between man, nature and God. Arts spring from the voices of nature: air, water, wind, forest and also temples,” said the founder of Srawung Seni Candi, Suprapto Suryodharmo.
This event, added the leader of Padepokan Lemah Putih art community in Solo, is expected to enhance the sense of togetherness, mutual assistance and harmony.
Temple reliefs and architecture inspire virtue in life because in his view, temples are milestones of civilization and culture.
This meeting of the arts will hopefully give rise to artistic aspirations as well as dialogues between spectators, critics and performers, thus manifesting the communion between man, nature and God.
“This is indeed an attempt to revive the values of humanity, nature and divinity in the arts and culture. Today such values have been packaged into tourism products, sold into physical art forms, instead of being offered in their true soul,” noted the man affectionately called Mbah (grandpa) Prapto. ( thejakartapost.com )
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