(JP/P.J. Leo)
It was an event which can be described as historic as well as historical.
To see a Surakarta court dance performed in a black box theater, I am told, is nothing short of historic, because such a show is traditionally seen on a raised stage -- a palace's pendopo. And what was presented on Nov. 1 and 2 at the Salihara Blackbox theater was indeed derived from the history of Mataram.
The performance evoked a dreadful battle which took place in the Central Javanese town of Rembang in 1756, when Raden Mas Said, who later founded the Mangkunegaran dynasty, led his company to fight a disproportionately more powerful enemy consisting of two detachments of troops from the then Dutch East India Company -- but yet succeeded in driving them away.
The evening's opening event, Mandra Asmara, is a song and dance performance based on an ancient story, created during the reign of Mangkunegara IV in the 1920s. A hermit with an appearance of a white monkey is accompanying his daughter who is looking for a knight who had visited her in a dream. In their journey they come across another father-daughter traveling duo: A hermit with a face of a monster whose daughter happens to also have dreamt of a handsome knight.
It is not known however, if the two young women are looking for the same knight. Almost predictably a conflict occurs between the two teams, where the two daughters fight -- not each other -- but their counterparts' fathers!
The women feature prominently. Each defeats her opponent and comes out victorious. Interestingly, despite their victory, at the bequest of one of the fathers, they do not finish off their opponents but instead agree to a better solution: Reconciliation, because as they further conversed, they realized the knight they were seeking was only a figment of their imaginations.
Goenawan Mohamad, the event's artistic director, confessed he chose this particular dance exactly because it featured women -- and more than that -- they were warrior women.
If Mendra Asmara is traditional, elaborately costumed and draws forth an occasional chuckle, the main event, Bedhaya Dirada Meta, is a phenomenal fusion of the traditional and the avant-garde. The immediate visual impact is unapologetically unadorned. In fact, it is minimalist in black and white.
The dancers are clad in white with black headdresses. The only colors are the occasional golden glint of their kris holders and their green dancing sashes. The backdrop's abstract painting by Hanafi, the music and the modern lighting all merge to create a mystical effect.
This ambience is in fact a significant element of the performance, because the dance Bedhaya Dirada Meta was actually created in the 18th century, commissioned by Mangkunegara I to honor 15 of his best officers who had died in the landmark battle of Rembang.
It was a frequently staged dance for at least two centuries. Curiously in the 20th century this dance fell out of the performance repertoire, virtually forgotten for 100 years, until it was resurrected by a Mangkunegaran dance group last year and performed at the palace. The choreographer and dancers consulted the written manuscripts which had been kept in the Mangkunegaran Library. According to reviews and reports, the it had been a grand affair, the dancers richly adorned with gold and other bright colors.
This performance was closely followed by another in the Jakarta National Museum.
So, Dirada Meta has finally returned to the performance realm. However, after seeing the two shows, Goenawan, who had been given carte blanche to design his own set for the Salihara event, realized he wanted something completely different.
He had one advantage: Hardly anyone remembered the original dance, including the costumes. Being liberated from this obligation, Goenawan consulted choreographer-dancer Daryono and senior dancer Nuryanto and decided the dance needed an injection of modern elements.
He was taking a significant risk, but he trusted his artistic instincts. Much to his relief and to the delight of everyone -- including the audience -- the risk paid off.
Bedhaya Dirada Meta, exquisitely delivered by seven male dancers and aided by stage lighting and appropriate heart-stopping music, had the audience spellbound from beginning to end, absorbing the haunting phenomenon before them. The whole show was so perfect it felt as if it had just unraveled without and effort. His risk had succeeded.
