Taking the Leap

The Jakarta Post   |  Tue, 01/22/2008 6:14 PM

Balinese dancer I Made Pujawati felt distinctly out of her element when she first traveled to England eight years ago. After learning to adapt to the differences, she is bringing her artistic knowledge to new audiences. Kunang Helmi-Picard meets her in London.

Why did I come to England? It’s so cold and gray, no lush vegetation,” Made Pujawati remembers with amusement her reaction when she arrived in London for an English-language course in September 1999.

After six months, the dancer fled back to Bali to revel in the warmth, tropical vegetation and familiar food. But that first acquaintance helped the petite, energetic Made improve her English and slowly grow accustomed to that strange faraway island.

Mark Hobart, the man who invited her to come, is an ethnologist who conducts research centered around the Pejengaji community center near Ubud where Made was born. Hobart, an expert on media studies, has collected hundreds of hours of television and film recordings on Bali.

“In fact, he happened to witness my birth 36 years ago,” Made says with a smile of her husband, 25 years her elder. “So I guess he was one of the first people to see me in this world.”

They married seven years ago and are now based in Hampstead, North London. Both have children from previous marriages; Hobart’s daughter spent part of her childhood in Bali, while Made’s two children live with their father and attend school in Bali. Hobart points out that for the boy and girl to grow up in London would be wrenching them out of their familiar surroundings, and even their Balinese mother had difficulties adapting to her new home.

Luckily for Made, Putri Farida, their next-door Malaysian neighbor in Hampstead, helped her cope with daily life and improve her colloquial English. There is also the Chinese-Malaysian accountant lodging during the week in their spacious house who contributes a whiff of Asia.

Hobart, who is an excellent cook, taught her to cook French and European food, a good thing, Made says. “I must confess that I could only cook a handful of Indonesian dishes which became rather repetitive after a while!”

However, she is definitely the family gardener. The comfortable two-story house, designed by an Australian architect and enhanced by polished wooden beams and wide bay windows, is filled with tropical plants, Hobart’s collection of wooden artifacts from Indonesia and overflowing bookshelves.

“Now it is Made’s collection of dance masks and costumes that threaten to take over,” Hobart jokes

Made has private dance students who come to their home to learn Balinese dance in the living room which is quickly converted into a spacious studio equipped with a large mirror.

After her own studies at junior high school in Tegalang, Made attended the Indonesian Higher Institute of Arts, specializing in dance. Like many young Balinese girls, she was taught to dance at an early age in the community. She went on to become a professional artist in modern Indonesia under the direction of Prof. Dr. I Made Bandem at the Denpasar Art Academy.

Whenever Made goes back to Bali, she is always asked to play the cheeky “condong” role in the Arja dance theater directed by I Wayan Dibia in Singapadu. And they beg her to stay to continue playing in Ketemu Ring Tampaksiring, a novel and popular version of Arja in Bali.

Despite sometimes yearning to do more dancing in Bali, England is home for the time being. Made took lessons from Jill Robert, a freelance dance teacher in London. She learned how to run a workshop and teach in a different style than at home in Bali. The workshops are organized under the auspices of “Cultural Cooperation” and funded by the national lottery, an important source of the subvention of the arts in Britain.

Recently she joined the program Step into Dance, part of the Royal Academy of Dance curriculum, to teach schoolchildren Balinese dance theater, like kecak and other techniques. Made enjoys teaching primary and secondary school students, but on other occasions also performs classical Balinese and Javanese dances on request. The Indonesian Embassy frequently asks her to perform, and she also dances at other arts festivals and venues in Britain, such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall South Bank in London, or abroad (including the Centre de la Danse in Paris and New York’s Symphony Space Broadway).

Made takes part in the activities of the mixed British-Indonesian dance and music group Lila Cita and Lila Bhawa in London. As well as five Indonesians, members come from Britain, Malaysia, America and the Bahamas. The gamelan and dance group performs, which is how the sociable Made prefers it.

Made’s work is not restricted to classical Indonesian dance; she has collaborated with Indian dancers in the Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi and Bharatanatyam styles and with a Chinese dancer.

“This brings fresh inspiration to my work as a dancer,” she says. ”It is very important not to stand still in creative activity, although I find that I am getting busier all the time!”

When interviewed in London, she was about to rehearse a new work called Tasher Desh for noted Chinese Singaporean choreographer Hi Ching. The dance is based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore about a prince who lands on a small island and finds prisoners in a land of cards. Made played “Miss Spade”; the performance premiered in Durham on November 17.

She was looking forward to four weeks in Australia in January with Mark. But best of all is the prolonged visit to Bali afterward. The Singapadu Arja dance group might well have the honor of the vivacious “condong” dancer performing with them for several special occasions.

She will be back in the home she loves.

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