Making a point: Panama Pictures presented Portrait and Short Stories, a contemporary dance, at Erasmus Huis in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Oct. 1.

For the first time in Indonesia, Netherland-based dance company Panama Pictures presented an acrobatic show titled Portrait and Short Stories at Erasmus Huis cultural center in South Jakarta on Oct. 1.

During the show, the audience enjoyed a different type of story about relationships, which was a typical romantic tale along the lines of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Chinese theatrical love story Sam Pek Eng Tay.

Portrait and Short Stories is about the bond between father and son, growing up apart and becoming older. On the stage, four dancers — Francesco Barba, Miquel de Jong, Fabian Krestel and Ruben Mardulier — played four brothers who fought for individual reasons. The youngest brother, for example, fought for his pride.

The first part of the performance showed Barba and Krestel dancing and flexing their muscles to impress each other.

“Seen from the outside, they are trying to impress each other and other people around them, but inside there is a lot of support, intimacy and trust,” said Panama Pictures choreographer and artistic director Pia Meuthen.

The dance company adapted the performance to the smaller stage.

Balance: Choreographer Pia Meuthen brought together dance and circus in the performance.

“There should have been a trampoline, a Chinese pole and a rope on the set, but the stage was smaller than we thought, so we couldn’t use the full set,” Krestel said after the show.

Meuthen said the performance was not simply a thing of beauty but also carried messages behind the movements.

“The dance itself has meaning,” Meuthen said. Portrait and Short Stories will be performed in Germany in October and in China next April.

— Photos by JP/Donny Fernando

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