Javanese show blends onstage arts
By Paige Parker
April 16, 2009 10:14 p.m.
In “Cup of Java: Javanese Dance Voices,” the line between music and performance is blurred.
Showing in Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., the performance will feature the collaborative effort of seven professional artists from Java, Indonesia. With music, theater, shadow puppetry and dance, the show aims to blend the various aspects of performance through a cultural narrative.
Anuradha Kishore Ganpati is the director of development and communications at the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance, which is putting on the show along with the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures and the CalArts World Music Performance Program.
“It’s like full theater with every aspect ““ complete theater,” Ganpati said.
The seven professional artists and faculty members were selected from art schools in Java to come to UCLA through the UCLA/Indonesian Arts Education Residency Fellowship Program grant, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State. The program allows the guest artists to take classes at UCLA and stage a performance. The performance on Saturday and Sunday will cost $8 for students and is directed by Judy Mitoma, director of the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance.
“This is going to be completely different from anything produced here at UCLA and pretty much anywhere else because all of the artists are masters in different disciplines,” said Philip Graulty, the Project Coordinator for the Center for Intercultural Performance.
The artists span three generations, a number having been teachers and students to each other while training in Java. The show itself will include classical Javanese solo and duel dances, traditional Western dances, theatrical interpretations of epic tales and shadow puppetry. It will also incorporate Islamic and Hindu traditions and myths about deities.
“(The artists) are coming together, combining all of these different disciplines and all their different talents and putting it together in one show. So it’s a really big collaborative effort,” Graulty said. “It’s really a unique way of experiencing Javanese art.”
According to Ganpati, the performance will touch on such universal themes as loyalty, love, heroism and spirituality. The musical accompaniment is provided by the CalArts gamelan ensemble. Gamelan is an Indonesian percussive ensemble. Understanding that the American audience may be unfamiliar with Javanese dance, culture and stories, a storyteller will guide the audience through what is happening onstage.
This cultural difference is apparent in the fact that in Java, these types of performances often last all night long.
“All day (and) all night we can perform puppetry. But here we just make it in two hours including intermission,” said performer Margaretha Heni Winahyuningsih, who hopes to convey the meditative aspect of dance to the audience.
Winahyuningsih, who starting training in Javanese dance at 7 years old, has studied in formal performing-arts institutions in Java. Because of the collaborative nature of performance in Java, she was exposed not only to dance but also puppetry, music and theater. Her skill is also not limited to a single region in Java but extends to neighboring regions as well.
“It’s unlike in America where you just focus on (music and dance), one or the other. (Javanese performance) is complete,” Ganpati said. “You have to know music to be able to dance, to be able to sing.”
In a blend of music, dance and storytelling, “Cup of Java” will be as much a night of entertainment as a cultural experience.
“I think that people are going to be blown away because this is something that you will go into not really knowing what to expect,” Graulty said, adding that the performers have brought a surprise for audience members.
“There are so many different aspects to the performance that people are going to be very surprised at what they see.”
