Dancing Jailolo

Eko Supriyanto

Performance of Cry Jailolo (2013) | Image by Pandji Vascodagama

Introduction

Conversations and perceptions regarding the body have been triggering conflicting perspectives from philosophers across the globe. Furthermore, the development of human civilisation has also brought changed perspectives towards the body. Based on cultural background, humans have been perceiving their body’s biological functions with varying conclusions. In the pre-religion era, the body was operating optimally in a biological and instinctive way. Along the way, the body was “disciplined” with various religious regulations, especially during the classic era. Up until the postmodern era, perceptions about how the body works were continuously challenged. In his work Sugiharto[1] posits that Michael Foucault assumed perceptions about the body could only be comprehended as a consequence of social changes throughout history. Collisions of perspectives raised questions about the development of different human cultures. Based on my personal experience, I agree with these theories. Back in 2012 I was made aware that the existence of the ‘cultural body’; which demonstrates the difference between a cultural body and a biological system. This experience puts an emphasis on the evidence that humans truly experienced evolution within themselves when they are forced to adapt to the environment.

Before my personal experience regarding ‘body’, I felt that the journey of my body as a whole had reached its climax. Back then, movement and movement exploration were not an issue for me. Now, my body has finally reached a stage where it can facilitate and interpret matters that were ordered through brain stimuli — be it jumping or freezing in fast or slow motion. Moreover, as a choreographer, I have the ability to transfer body exploration knowledge and choreography to dancers, where they are able to interpret the choreographic pattern I give.

Such experiences should leave me with feelings of accomplishment as my job as a dance trainer and choreographer are realised. In addition, my ability of transferring knowledge and choreography could be considered as successful as I have produced young talented dancers with immaculate physicality and stamina. Unfortunately, these accomplishments do not prevent me from feeling anxious, knowing that bodies that were rigorously trained no longer accept new challenges.

My anxieties regarding the use of the body was suddenly answered when I was given the opportunity by the West Halmahera government in North Maluku to develop the Performing Arts festival scene in Eastern Indonesia. Ir. Namtu Hui Roba, the regent of West Halmahera, humbly asked that I — based on the performing arts knowledge and experience that I have — highlight the growth of the arts in Jailolo, the place where Festival Teluk Jailolo (FTJ) takes place each year. I agreed without any hesitation.

Since the beginning, Eastern Indonesia culture has been igniting my curiosity. It is my belief that this particular part of Indonesia has a lot of mysteries hiding below the surface of this crowded modern culture. Capitalism and materialism has been harshly inflicted on the western part of this country. However, it did not take long for the maritime culture of Jailolo to carry my heart away.

Sensorially, my body experienced new sensations; where my sense of vision was served with visuals of a maritime landscape, a completely different archipelago compared to the rural and urban agrarian nature I was accustomed to back in Java. My sense of hearing absorbed nature’s sounds as completely non-industrial. The residents too had a whole new accent. When it came to taste buds, what a wonderful experience tasting the fresh commodity caught by local fishermen. On top of that, the air in Eastern Indonesia was not as polluted compared to Java.

These various foreign sensations awakened the alertness in my body in its effort to adapt. This alertness should not be interpreted as negative, because it redefines the condition of body where it is able to receive more stimulants in reaction of the surrounding environment.

That was the exact moment where I felt my body memory was flooded by new information, fulfilling needs that weren’t filled before. At the same time, it forced me to perform various interpretations and translations to understand this brand-new nature and culture. As a result, of this personal experience, I was motivated to do more comprehensive research toward Eastern Indonesia.

Performance of Cry Jailolo (2013) | Image by Pandji Vascodagama

Body Research

After agreeing to the offer to develop the Festival Teluk Jailolo, I was given the time and facility to do my research. The research method that I used within those two years did not follow default rules within research methodology, but was more of a deep, comprehensive observation towards Jailolo’s cultural values, overview of the social mapping, and adaptation within the people’s daily lives. Interpretations were done gradually, to muffle the rise of unnecessary sympathy or empathy towards the reality of social conflicts in Eastern Indonesia, caused by differing political and ideology agitation.

The results I found during the research in Jailolo can be divided into the three categories below:

- Physical artifacts

- Human (individual)

- Social system within the society

These three cultural aspects helped me interpret this new culture that I aim to comprehend. This perspective matches with what Madison[2] explained in his literature; that interpretation is important to help research produce a comprehensive visual. I believe it also needs to strike harmony between detailed findings about the culture as a whole. Failure to achieve this harmony means failure to understand a culture or the phenomenon within it. These findings later became media that is utilized to achieve comprehensive understanding and cognitive knowledge that triggers my creativity in order to work with the local residents.

PHYSICAL ARTIFACTS are a concrete, physical matter that become the unique characteristics of a culture. In semantic theory, artifacts are seen as signs from a culture, where it consists of symbolic system and meanings that represents thoughts, ideas, and image of a society group[3]. Jailolo culture is extremely linked with the maritime culture of archipelagic society. What is unique is that Maluku is known to have a volcanic nature and is close to oceans, beaches, and mountains.

Tribes that live within the Jailolo area also have unique characteristic that stole my attention. For example, in one of its tribes, the Sahu tribe, half of its residents reside near the coast and the rest reside near the Sahu Mountain. Those who live near the coast are dependent for their financial source on the fishery sector, so that the artifacts found within that area are linked to equipment that are used by fishermen, in ocean rituals, and for conservation efforts of the beach and ocean.

Performance of Cry Jailolo (2013) | Image by Pandji Vascodagama

By comparison, the rest of Sahu tribe who reside on area with higher altitude in the mountains, fulfill their daily life needs with kopra gardening. Physical artifacts such as Sasadu houses are often utilised as the convention room for society meetings. These houses are also a proof of an artifact that is heavily linked to the gardening culture and lives in the forest.

Other tribes live side by side in the Jailolo area such as Tobaru, Tobelo, Wayoli, and Gamkonora and are completely under the power of Jailolo sultanate.

Belief systems of Jailolo residents could be considered as quite varied, from Animism, Christian, to Muslim. This produces different ritual artifacts and daily lives. Immigrants from the Bugis tribe and Java, who have been acculturated and live in the coastal area of Jailolo, are majority Muslim. By comparison, those who reside in the mountain area are generally Christians.

HUMAN (INDIVIDUAL). Existence of humans within a society can be seen through the physicality of the individual or through its social function. However, our understanding about perception (existential and societal) heavily relies on our own body experience[2]. I am interested in doing research on individual bodies before perceiving individuals inside the social system in Jailolo. One thing I instantly realised is that there is some physical uniqueness that I did not see in Java or other part of this world. This is their muscle structure. Body evolution managed to develop muscle and body organs to suit their daily life as fishermen, divers, and kopra climbers. Along with differing muscular there are distinctive gestures and body and this became an interesting dialectic to me, as someone who is used to urban bodies on Java Island. I will explain my interpretation regarding body languages of Jailolo society in the next section.

SOCIAL SYSTEMS WITHIN SOCIETY. Social systems within society. As explained above, Jailolo consist of local tribes and immigrants that mostly come from Sulawesi, Ambon, Papua, and Java. This could not be separated from the history of the ‘herb track’ that made Maluku archipelago one of the ultimate destinations in the colonialism era. Wars, power struggles, and conflict have occurred in this region, leaving trauma for Jailolo societies. The last conflict revolved around religion and ideology, where the local tribes that are mostly Christian Protestant, faced the immigrants who are Muslim in majority. This conflict ultimately had to be resolved by the military.

I visited Jailolo for the first time back in 2012, when violence was still the only solution for conflicts between the tribes. It was the moment I saw the leadership of Namto as the regent. Namto holds a significant role in maintaining the stability of his area, while continuing progressive actions for the development of Jailolo. The figure of regent can be considered as a role model within the society in West Halmahera, and inspires hope that society will one day agree to unite to bring Jailolo into a better future. It leads me to believe that high social titles make it easier for an individual to become a role model who can produce a revolutionary social movement.

There were two significant events that became the motivation of my creative process in Jailolo and became my source of inspiration and core enlightenment. The first was a dance called Legu Salai. A kid — describing war dance from the Sahu tribe — performs this dance. The movement pattern that was performed in this

traditional dance was something that I have never witnessed anywhere, and it triggered me to learn it. The coordination between legs, arms, attitude, and body rhythm is performed in such a wonderful way, aiming to convey a language that is interesting to interpret — and that is what I have been trying to do since the beginning of the research. However, I realized from the beginning that traditional arts could only be owned and felt by the owner of the culture. Therefore, even if I tried to respond, interpret, or take inspirations from it, I needed to deconstruct every single element in the dance first.

Along with the research regarding Legu Salai dance, I had an experience that managed to give me an explosive sensation for my sensorial nature and it was the time that I was forced to dive into the ocean. At the beginning, I refused to dive into the ocean but once I did, I was amazed by such different nature from what I had ever experienced before. I felt that my body and my existence, as an individual, became extremely vulnerable. I needed to survive in such foreign nature. My life depended on complicated diving equipment that requires special knowledge to operate it. My body, which is usually pulled by gravitation on the ground, suddenly felt the need to adapt to flying inside water. Breathing was also a challenge, because I needed to manage the oxygen intake so that my body could move freely.

At the same time, the underwater nature gave some sense of calmness that I never ever felt before in my entire life. It was serene, intense, and meditative at the same time. It was such a paradoxical condition, where I felt vulnerable in such foreign environment, but at the same time, this nature gave me an extraordinary calm sensation. An explosion of new information flooded my body, slowly constructing new body memories that carried me to the connecting line — to my interpretation towards the culture in Jailolo.

Cry Jailolo

Based on the hermeneutics postmodern perspective that was mentioned by Heidegger (as explained in Mudji Sutrisno, SJ’s book), new interpretations could only be made through our actual existence; where it linked to our experience, related to physical matters, and had aspects that put us into situational context and meaning. Hermeneutics according to Heidegger is used to determine existential being through understanding, where understanding is more meaningful than mere knowledge.

‘My diving experience truly opened my eyes to feel my existential being physically and let my body absorb the body memories that shaped the society in Jailolo. ’

This perspective is the opposite of rationalist perspective, put forward by thinkers such as Descartes, who perceives the human existentially through their ability to think. According to Heidegger, no matter what, the ability of human to think is strongly connected to the existential in daily lives and could not be separated from knowledge to feeling experiences.

My diving experience truly opened my eyes to feel my existential being physically and let my body absorb the body memories that shaped the society in Jailolo. In terms of visual, I saw movements of fish in the ocean, where they move as a colony, individually, and unite together, making an amazing composition. At the same time, I felt concerned about the damage of coral reefs caused by violent activities. In meditative terms, I slowly traced back and felt the power of cultural bodies within the Jailolo society, still facing difficulties from past conflicts in that area. The ocean water that often feels soft still needs to be anticipated. So too are the people in Jailolo shaped into flexible individuals. They must anticipate and be able to get back up when faced with challenges.

I also had an experience of strong physical sensation when trying to deconstruct the Legu Salai dance while connecting it to my other findings during my movement on the ground or in the ocean. During my creative process, I reconstructed the rhythmical war dance into its core layer. Traditional arts that are being reinterpreted need to stand on their own independently, returning body to its real existential and basic movement; non-ornamental, without seeing it as an exotic object.

Deconstruction within traditional arts is an effort to return back the roots of traditional arts as the ultimate source for art in a bigger form, specifically contemporary dance arts (Mudji Soetrisno). Perspective, whilst attempting this deconstruction, needs to be examined carefully because misunderstood perspective could cause commoditization, cooptation, and commercialization towards cultural values — which has often happened in many parts of Indonesia when traditional arts and modern arts were combined.

Based on the perspective above, I produced a contemporary dance work called Cry Jailolo, and was a direct result of body research done in those years in Jailolo. Based on that research, I chose a Jailolo male to perform this dance. Each dancer carries their cultural bodies. A Jailolo dancer could not be replaced by anyone else. Based on Heidegger’s perception, Dasein is impossible to imitate because every single human body carries its existence through a time and place frame (Soetrisno). The originality

and honesty of the dancers with no dance background made the creative process of Cry Jailolo easier because, mechanically, I did not need to transfer my interpretation about Jailolo culture.

Taking the movement pattern that is similar to groups of fish in the ocean, this contemporary dance work aims to voice my concern towards the damage of ocean nature caused by humans. I am aware that this critical attitude within the medium is what society needs. Audiences are no longer sitting down watching a beautiful narrative of an art form in an exotic place. Now an audience can raise questions, issues, or even protest. A mature modern characteristic is the appearance of self-reflection[4]. This is what I offer through Cry Jailolo.

Conclusion

This research-based creative process undertaken in Jailolo involved a lot of components and cultural matters that needed to be examined, as objects need to be interpreted, especially by people who are not originally from the culture. With this research, I aimed to understand the culture of this archipelagic society by observing the history of their bodies (remember that the work that I produced is strongly connected to the body). The Hermeneutics perspective as a basic theory of linguistic interpretation is ideal to the process that I undertook. It was performed through language conveyed through bodies of Jailolo. Various socio-cultural elements and individualised bodies lead to an understanding of a culture that has been through a long history of power shifts and challenges to the economy, ideology, and environment. As a result, this work of art makes use of traditional arts as an inspiration, but the traditional values were processed into interpretation and deconstructed until it was born into a new art entity that stands independently. It thinks critically and contextually to be presented in the contemporary culture in the present time.

[1] Sugiharto, B. 2000. ‘Penjara Jiwa, Mesin Hasrat, Tubuh Sepanjang Budaya’. Jurnal Kebudayaan Kalam: Menguak Tubuh. e Yayasan Kalam.

[2] Merleau-Ponty, M. 2011. Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge.

[3] Siefkes, M. 2012. The semantics of artefacts: How we give meaning to the things we produce and use. Image. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft,16 (Special issue Semiotik). http:// www.gib.uni-tuebingen.de/image/ausgaben?function=fnArticle&showArticle=218; Part 1.

[4] Giddens, A. 1992.

EKO SUPRIYANTO

Founder and Artistic Director of EkosDance Company and Solo Dance Studio in Surakarta Indonesia, Eko Supriyanto is the leading Indonesian dancer and choreographer of his generation. He is a full-time faculty member of Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) in Surakarta.

Trained in Javanese court dances and the Indonesian martial arts of Pencak Silat since the age of seven, Eko’s performance career spans major works and tours throughout Indonesia, Europe, the United States, Australia and the Asia Pacific.

A Fullbright Grantee of 2010, Asian Cultural Center New York and Ford Foundation Grantee, Eko holds a PhD in Performance Studies (2014) from Gadjah Mada University. In 2018 he completed his second doctoral degree in creative arts at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Surakarta. He holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance and Choreography from the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures (2001) USA.

His performance career stretches between major commercial productions to dance research projects. He choreographed and performed for major international productions including Peter Sellars Le Grand Macabre, John Adam’s Opera Flowering Tree, the Barbican Centre in London, Berlin Philharmonic, the Lincoln Center in New York and LA Philharmonic, Lyn Dally Jazz Tap Ensemble Los Angeles.

Eko was a dance consultant for Julie Taymor’s Lion King Broadway production. He worked as an actor and choreographer on Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa film, Iron Bed and Tusuk Konde, Musical ONROP with Joko Anwar, MAU’s Lemi Ponifasio’s Tempest New Zealand, solid.states with Arco Renz, Belgium, and was a featured dancer in Madonna’s 2001 world tour of Drowned World. He was awarded best supporting actor of Harry Dagoe Suharyadi’s film entitled Sunya.

His recent major work is Cry Jailolo with seven youth dancers from Jailolo North Maluku (2013) that toured in Japan, Australia (2015-2018). Again Cry, Jailolo’s sister work, with five young women from Jailolo BALABALA was developed and toured intensively in Australia, Japan, Europe and Taiwan (2017-2018). The most recent performance research on the body embodiment of Indonesian Dancers is connected to his work on maritime culture entitled SALT, completing his Trilogy of Dancing Jailolo, with a world Premiere in Belgium October 2017 to March 2018. Due to start touring in 2020, The Future of Dance is Under Water and Post Colonial on Body of Borders, to Japan, Australia (AsiaTopa) and Europe –IBUIBU BELU.