The short duet Purification evolved during training of Joged Amerta (joged: child like, amerta: nectar) with our late teacher Pak Suprapto Suryodarmo (Prapto) in Java, Indonesia. Prapto brought Alex Gebe, a dancer, actor from Sumatra and myself together in our practice. He invited us to perform on 1 January 2019 as part of a ritual that included planting seeds on the first day of the new year and many performances by artists from different Indonesian islands: Bibit Poesie (seed of poetry). The audience, an extended village gathering, would receive seeds and place these in nature.
The temple grounds where we danced and their reliefs and sculptures, invited attention to the balancing of female and male, offering and receiving. Also nature itself, surrounded by it, and the mystical in moving around each other. Within this context we were working towards a sense of purification through moving each other with different qualities. In the performance three musicians played live. Just as we were about to start, the rainy season showed itself at its best as the rain came down, pouring, purifying as we danced. It couldn’t have been more timely.
Dance: Alexander Gebe (Lampung, Sumatra), Lily Kiara (Amsterdam, NL)
Music: Dolly Nofer, Fikran Yandy Saputra, Fandi
Instigated and guided by Amerta Movement, Pak Suprapto Suryodarmo, 1 January 2019 | Gunung Lawu (mountain), Srawung Seni Candi, next to Candi Sukuh (temple), Java, Indonesia