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Kaori Okado: From contemporary to classical dances
(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)Although the dance was choreographed for males, Kaori Okado managed to style it in an enchanting and elegant way, typical of the Javanese classical style
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(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi) (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Although the dance was choreographed for males, Kaori Okado managed to style it in an enchanting and elegant way, typical of the Javanese classical style.
Okado was performing the Gunungsari mask dance gracefully on the campus of the State Islamic Institute (IAIN), in Surakarta recently.
As the dancer opened her mask at the end of her show, the audience was taken by surprise. They saw a Japanese instead of a Javanese. In fact, this is among the difficult dances that require accurate synchronization of movements with mask expressions.
Apart from Gunungsari, Kaori is capable of presenting other mask dances in the male category, such as Menak Jinggo Gandrung, Gatotkaca and Klana Topeng, with equal finesse.
'I've learned a lot from empu [masters] of dance in Solo [Surakarta] and Yogyakarta. They're been very helpful in guiding me to be a Javanese classical dancer,' said the woman now finishing her doctorate program in performing arts and social inclusion at Osaka City University, Japan.
Born in Nagoya, Japan, Okado has been fond of dancing since childhood. As a fifth grader, she learned modern dances at a studio near her house until she finished junior high school.
Her parents, Hiroyoko Okado and Kumiko Okado, introduced her to various Japanese traditional and modern arts. 'In my family, singing is a favorite art, but I want something different, that's why I've studied the art of dance,' she revealed.
Okado, however, admitted that her hobby of dancing had been an attempt to compensate for feelings of inferiority as a child, making it hard for her to make friends. 'I felt lonely and I took dance courses, but as soon as I joined stage performances, I began to gain self-confidence and have many friends,' she said.
After senior high school in Nagoya in 1995, Okado turned down several scholarships from universities in Japan and chose to study modern and contemporary dance at the California Institute of Arts.
'In the 1990s, this branch of dance was still oriented to America so I had to study there,' said Kaori, who is 170 centimeters tall.
Her meeting with several lecturers from Indonesia at the California Institute of Arts, including Joko Waluyo, Nanik and Wenten, led her into the world of Javanese arts as well as Balinese dance and gamelan. Originally, she learned the arts for her study assignments. Okado delved into classical arts in 1998, when her faculty planned to hold a Javanese and Balinese dance concert.
'At the time they [the concert organizers] were seeking Asians to perform Javanese classical dances. I was selected. I didn't want to waste the opportunity. Since then I've been seriously learning Javanese dances,' she pointed out.
She chose Javanese classical dances and arts because most of the Asians on her campus chose Balinese arts. Okado said she would have had no challenge if she had followed the others by opting for Balinese arts.
Nonetheless, Okado did learn Balinese arts. In 2001, she visited Bali to learn to play a gender (a metallophone) in Tabanan, Bali. Kaori was also a dance company member in San Diego, California, which provided training in Javanese and Balinese dances and classical arts for primary school students in California.
In 2001, she failed to get a scholarship from the US government to study in Indonesia because of the issue of terrorism. Yet she refused to give up. With a recommendation from Joko Waluyo, an Indonesian lecturer in America, at her own expense Kaori went to the Indonesian Arts College (now Indonesian Arts Institute/ISI), Solo.
For three years, she studied Javanese classical arts and dances in the styles of Surakarta (Kasunanan, Mangkunegaran palaces) and Yogyakarta. Besides ISI, she also learned from the Group of Pakarti Classical Arts, Mangkunegaran, and from several dance masters in Solo and Yogyakarta, including Samsuri, Joned, Tarwo and Umi.
Now she has had a command of hundreds of classical dances. 'Javanese dances are very complex as they aren't only about learning dance movements but also about understanding the gamelan accompaniment. It's taken 10 years for me to get really immersed in this dance art,' said Kaori, who earned her master's degree from Osaka City University through classical Langendriayan of Mangkunegaran.
She has staged various collaborations and has been invited to different shows in a number of cities in Central Java.
'My performance at Mangkunegaran Palace makes me feel happy and proud. Not just any dancer can appear there but I was chosen to present the Golek Mantra Dance, which is considered sacred,' she noted.
Okado also expressed her pride for being able to perform Gambyong Retno Kusumo choreographed by Mangkunegara VIII.
According to her, this dance is among the most difficult Javanese classical compositions because all subtle hand techniques are to be employed.
The beauty of Javanese classical dances, in Kaori's view, lies in the standard rules to be observed, although they by no means imply the absence of room for creativity and improvisation. Such creativity will arise if the dancer understands the relevant dance and gamelan philosophy.
'For me, limited room for creativity just serves as a challenge to styling Javanese classical dances as beautiful and inspiring,' she said.
'I'm going to return to Japan to complete my dissertation because it's my duty as a student, after which I'll be back here [to Indonesia]. I'm in love with Javanese dance,' she added.
