The Associate Artists Scheme is a programme for artists' development at The Substation.
The Substation's Performance Lab Presents :Circular Ruins by Raka Maitra (ASSOCIATE ARTIST) & Bambang Besur Suryono
Circular Ruins is a dance performance that explores the concepts of reality as a response to the text “Circular Ruins” by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges. The short story describes a wizard who retreats from the world to the circular ruins, a location with strong mystical powers. There, the wizard creates a human being while he dreams and he eventually creates a boy. He asks the God of Fire to bring his creation to life. When Fire agrees the boy is sent to a distant temple and becomes famous because he can walk through fire unharmed. The wizard hears of this but wakes up to find the circular ruins ablaze. He walks into the flame and realises that his skin doesn’t burn. “With relief, with humiliation, with terror he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another.”
The Javanese and Indian contemporary movement is a response to the story, illustrating the elements of mystery and the strong images from the text. Besur’s voice is like an instrument and will be accompanied by live violin, gamelan and percussion played by Danis Sugiyanto. Even the lighting is almost a “performance” as some of it will be improvised on stage by lighting designer Yeo Hon Beng. Besur’s costume is made out of tree bark and he wears a wooden mask so he looks reminiscent of the walls of a ruin. The text itself is a metaphor for artistic creation and the objective of this dance theatre project is to represent the intensity, truth and humanity of creative work or artistic work on stage.
CIRCULAR RUINS
Since a trip to Java in 2007, one of The Substation’s Associate Artists, Raka Maitra has been working towards a collaboration with renowned performer and choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo and his student Bambang Besur Suryono. Emily J Hoe talks to Raka about her performance this month called “Circular Ruins”.
Circular Ruins is a dance performance that explores the concepts of reality as a response to the text “Circular Ruins” by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The short story describes a wizard who retreats from the world to the circular ruins, a location with strong mystical powers. There, the wizard creates a human being while he dreams and he eventually creates a boy. He asks the God of Fire to bring his creation to life. When Fire agrees the boy is sent to a distant temple and becomes famous because he can walk through fire unharmed. The wizard hears of this but wakes up to find the circular ruins ablaze. He walks into the flame and realises that his skin doesn’t burn. “With relief, with humiliation, with terror he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another.”
What drew you to this text in particular?
I was drawn into the layers of meaning of “Circular Ruins” when I read a book on the recommendation of a friend and realised it could inspire a performance. The story is a metaphor for creation, which is what I do every day. It deals with with dilemma, pain, doubt about what one does and this is very similar to an artist’s experience.”
How has the text inspired the perfomance?
“The performance “Circular Ruins” is not a direct narrative of the story, but a response to it. It is the first time I’ve used a story as an inspiration and it took months to figure out how to respond to it and how to translate it into a performance. Initially I was taking the story and trying to convert it into movment and it didn’t work. There are very strong images in the story and as soon as I stopped trying to narrate and simply moved in response to the imagery, it just started to flow naturally. The images in the story include ruins, walls, decay, statues, immortality and can be seen in the performance and this brings the story and movement of “Circular Ruins” together.”
You are collaborating with artists from Java. Can you tell us more?
Two years ago I went to Solo and saw Besur perform traditional and contemporary Javanese dance. I found this really interesting because he was doing exactly what I was doing with Indian dance. Besur is Sardono W. Kusumo’s student. Sardono is a highly-respected and well known Javanese classical performer who was classically trained and became a contemporary performer and choreographer. Since the first meeting, Besur and I have been thinking about how to collaborate together. Sardono helped us through the process, talked to us, and opened our minds to new possibilities through discussions. Initially our movements were developed in our individual training. There are many similarities in movement between Javanese and Indian dance but at the same time there are also differences, and this makes the combination so compelling. We created the piece in silence with just Besur’s voice and breathing. Then Danis Sugiyanto arrived and observed the performance and then gradually improvised the music. Besur and I improvise movements around the basic structure.
What can the audience expect in “Circular Ruins”?
We’ve used Besur’s voice like an instrument and will be accompanied by live violin, gamelan and percussion played by Danis. Even the lighting is almost a “performance” as some of it will be improvised on stage by lighting designer Yeo Hon Beng. Besur’s costume is made out of tree bark and he wears a wooden mask so he looks reminscent of the walls of a ruin. The movement is a response to the story. The elements of mystery and the strong images from the text are hopefully what will come through the performance even through the meeting of Javanese and Indian contemporary dance.
http://www.substation.org/whats_on/performing_arts.html
http://www.substation.org/associate_artists/
Headlong Dance TheaterPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania$20,000to enable company members to participate in the XIII Annual Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Bytom in summer 2006.
http://www.tmuny.org/wp-index.php/grantees/?page=&c_type=&c_year=2005
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Patravadi Theatre is inviting you to Ratchaburi and enjoy a rare mix and blend of local and international performing arts.Patravadi Theatre’s Fringe Festival is now in its ninth edition. This annual showcase of contemporary dance and theatre, with some music and film programs, has breathed much life and vibrancy into the country’s performing arts scene. A new experiment this year: it’s not being held....http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/danceandtheatre/2009/01
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/print.php?id=8116
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