An Intense Dance Performance on “Vertical Recall” by Melati Suryodarmo at Helatari Salihara
Another exciting festival for dance performance held by Salihara and it’s called “Helatari Salihara 2017”. The festival that runs from 3 – 18 June 2017 showcases the development of the art of dance in Indonesia. Throughout 1970s to the 2000s, Indonesian dance that roots from traditional and non-traditional origin grows with a lot of influences. Lately a new form of dance combined with theatrical performance appeared in Europe and resulted in the appearance of a term dance-theater. Choreographers started to insert the daily activities and conflict into their movements and created ‘not-dancing’ like gestures. Helatari Sailhara 2017 shows 5 choreographers with their various concept with an underlying theme of daily life. The examples are daily life in Jakarta, the life of a sculptor, the magic of traditional dance and dance that is inspired by literature. One of the performance that we saw was “Vertical Recall”, a choreography by Melati Suryodarmo from Surakarta. Melati developed the idea for this dance after getting inspired by a theater script titled “Waiting for Godot” written by Samuel Beckett. The theater which was shown during the 50’s that tells about two characters named Vladimir and Estragon who wait for Godot who never arrives.
With this simple narration, Melati emphasizes on the behavior of the characters in the script which is interpreted rather philosophically. The theatrical choreography of “Vertical Recall” portrayed the behavior of people who face a difficult situation thus forcing them to give in to their fates. The four dancers were clad in white paint that was drawn on their bodies and all-black wardrobe. Powdery substance were placed on stage and added a dramatic touch to their every movement. They showed intense power after 15 minutes into their performance, inducing reactions from the audience with the accompaniment of music. Since 2007, Melati has established a program called “Undisclosed Territory” with Padepokan Lemah Putih which include participation from local and international artists. Besides “Vertical Recall”, Helatari Salihara 2017 that is held in Thursday, Saturday and Sunday on June will continue the rest of its scheduled performance as seen on Salihara website. Come and enjoy an intricate dance performance from Indonesia’s finest choreographers and dancers.
