Soeryo Soemirat Dance Workshop
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
THREE STARS
Even at its fiercest – when good is in mythic conflict with evil – there is something solemn and controlled about this traditional courtly dance from Indonesia.
Common folk may well have cut loose with glimmers of riotous, even erotic, movement but in the Mangkunegaran Royal Palace, refinement and grace were what played to the aristocratic audience.
I’d hesitate to claim that status – or discriminating knowledge – for those of us who looked and listened to the musicians and dancers performing as part of Cryptic’s brief Discover Indonesia programme.
But there is something intriguing about this unfamiliar Javanese culture that catches the imagination, and does indeed leave you wanting to discover more.
In Srimpi Muncar, four gorgeously costumed female dancers slowly, silently, glide on-stage.
Programme notes explain that this is a confrontation between love rivals: if so, it is a very elegant spat even when (ornamental) bows and pistols are drawn with a hint of heated intention.
The emphasis is on intricate formality. Little hand gestures are articulated down to the very fingertips, footwork is minimal beyond a wonderfully deft backwards flick of bare toes that sweeps trailing draperies out of the way, The Kelono dance sees a lone male in volatile, swaggering mode as an uncouth king who needs to find a softer side.
Aggressive stances shape-shift into a more rounded style with persuasive finesse before Bambangan Cakil evokes a battle between a knight and a giant where a female dancer brings graceful calm to our hero until the lurid male giant provokes a strikingly athletic retaliation.
This coup de theatre is thrillingly echoed by the intense gonging of the gamelan orchestra that has played throughout, accompanying dancers and singers on a voyage of fascinating sonorities and syncopations.
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