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span class="inline inline-left">JP/Jerry AdigunaThe contemporary dance scene in Indonesia is lucky to have an inspiring dancer and choreographer like Andara Firman Moeis, who continues to question, challenge and bring changes to local performance.

Andara, or Anggie as her friends call her, first challenged the local dance scene with her ultramodern style back in 2006 when she was a third-year student at the Jakarta Institute of Art (IKJ).

Anggie stunned dance critics at the time with peculiar choreography that at times showed her holding an iPod with eyes glued to a Blackberry screen or dancing to a Britney Spears song.

The performance turned out to be a breakthrough in the contemporary dance scene in Indonesia, as most artists still cling to traditional values. Experts lauded the show as fresh and offering new perspectives.

Six years later, Anggie has risen to become one of the most promising contemporary dancers in Indonesia, but she still struggles to try and reform dance in the country.

Together with three friends, the 26-year-old initiated iMove in 2011 as a place to accommodate new talent in the local dance scene.

“It serves as a stepping stone before they become famous. If anyone wants to know about young contemporary choreographers, just come to iMove,” she explained to The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

Anggie said iMove was founded as space for young aspiring dancers was still limited, for most stages were dominated by already established figures.

The recipient of the 2012-2013 empowering woman artist award from the Kelola Foundation blamed this on an existing system that only focused on big names, ignoring the process of regeneration and putting the future of the local dance scene in jeopardy.

“If we want the dance sphere in the country to survive, we have to know and be open-minded to the young generation,” Anggie remarked.

Through hard work, despite it being newly established, iMove has produced 10 new emerging choreographers, three of which were selected to perform at the 2012 Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF), a respected biennial event for dancing communities in Indonesia.

Anggie says she hopes iMove can consistently hold an annual festival to showcase new talent in the first five years of its establishment and to follow it with a two-year festival afterward with IDF.

“We also wish to find fixed sponsors to help our programs,” she added, explaining that currently the budget for the program came from their own pockets.

Hearing her life story, it seems Anggie’s fight for the improvement of Indonesian contemporary dance stemmed from her passion for the art form since she was little.

Anggie grew up with a penchant for dancing. She said she started dancing when she was four and her fascination continued to progress as she grew older. Anggie even formed a popular dance group called
“shakadelic” together with some high school friends.

Knowing that her life was intended for dancing, Anggie went to IKJ and majored in dance.

Anggie explained that it was her experience at IKJ that made her fall in love with Indonesian traditional and contemporary dance.

“I learned that our dance culture is very rich. It is a complete form of culture, not only a matter of movement but also feeling and appreciation,” said the woman who was appointed the spokesperson for the upcoming IDF.

After graduation, she then joined her friend’s school of dance and become one of the teachers there.

The school has around 600 active students and from them Anggie said she discovered the great spirit Indonesian youth have to study dance seriously.

“It is not only commercial dance alone but also contemporary style … they learn that being a dancer is not the last choice because becoming a dancer has never been easy,” she said.

And being a full-time lecturer hasn’t stopped Anggie from expanding her career as a professional dancer and choreographer.

She has been involved in numerous dance projects under the supervision of dance maestros like Sardono W. Kusumo, Hartati and Jecko Siompo, who gave her the chance to perform on stages around the world from Asia to Europe.

Apart from being a wonderful and talented dancer, Anggie is apparently also a productive and creative choreographer. As of 2011, the slender lady has produced six dance works that have been showcased in different cities around the world, with the farthest being performed in Prague in the Czech Republic.

Most of Anggie’s choreography brings urban themes to the stage, and she is known as “the metropolitan girl” in the Indonesian contemporary dance scene.

“A lot of the works are inspired by my experience being born and raised in Jakarta, such a crowded and multicultural city,” she explained.

Anggie said she also brought personal subjects to her works. Her latest piece of choreography is iBody, which explores the ability of human anatomy to record memory.

“For me, body has its own memory, physically and mentally ... It has its own memory and thoughts,” she explained.

Following its 2011 release, iBody will again be showcased as part of main performances in the next IDF in June.

Despite her blossoming career, Anggie said she once encountered what she said was “acute boredom” in 2010 after seeing the status quo of the local dance environment that did not give much opportunity for new rising stars to shine on stage. This encouraged her to apply for a three-month course in Amsterdam.

It turned out her experience in the capital of the Netherlands opened her eyes to many things, including ideas to offer chances for new artists to emerge in the country’s dance scene.

“You can see a dance performance almost every week in Amsterdam. They were all young choreographers and it was just crazy. They do not perform in exhibition halls anymore, but in warehouses, clubs and malls,” Anggie shared of her enlightenment during her time in the Netherlands.

Returning from Amsterdam, Anggie went ahead with the idea to establish iMove together with college and high school friends who shared the same passion for dance.

Anggie hopes iMove can contribute to making contemporary Indonesian dance more colorful with the emergence of new talent.

Another wish is to see the high-brow and secluded contemporary dance world become more popular with the public. She said she had been thinking of expanding the contemporary dance stage to not only exclusive galleries and performance halls but also to more crowd-friendly sites like malls and other public places.

With all her endeavors, in the end, Anggie wants to prove that being a dancer is also a career option that anyone can be proud of, something that she already achieved so far.