Indonesia Korea Cultural Show (part 2)

Indonesia-Korea Cultural Show or 한국-인도네시아 문화교류의 밤. Yes and it's still going on as I was taking the picture^^.

This time, Indonesian government through Indonesian Embassy in Seoul invited some dancers from Betawi. Betawi culture is what Jakarta is. I mean Betawi is the original culture originated in the present day Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. I did not know why Betawi culture was hugely represented here while there are also so many other cultures worth-performing. But, I am sure the committee had agreed to show off the Betawi culture on this occasion. What interested me most was the fact that the whole dancers in their intricately designed masks were dancing to a live musical ensemble right next to them. So, instead of dancing to a prerecorded music, they were dancing in line with the live musical instruments. Bravo and kudos to the committee for bringing this up.

Then, the next show was 살풀이춤 or Salpuri dance. This dance symbolizes the sadness of a woman. In sadness she consoles herself by emitting her inner feeling and kind of releasing the prolonged suppressed emotion in her heart. That's what salpuri is all about. Through the movement of the dancer, we can follow and feel the sadness and sorrow of a bereaved or --maybe--broken-heart  or --maybe--lonely woman. Well, that's what the feeling that came up when I was glued watching this dance. 

This is a poem recital or 시낭송. This show did bring numerous Indonesian literary figures to the stage. I think it is a great chance for students of Malay-Indonesian Department at HUFS to experience numerous pieces of how Indonesian language delivered through the articulate notions of what poem in Indonesian language is...especially when they are recited like the ones being shown last night.

(Mrs. Wina SW1 delivered her own piece of poem that she wrote while she was in Kyoto-Japan back in January 2005). She comes from Aceh. And she was dumbstruck by the calamity that befell upon her homeland in Aceh: the 2004 Aceh Tsunami that claimed more than 250,000 lives in Aceh. 

Her rendition of what Aceh people must have felt and faced by the disastrous calamity was powerfully expressed by her recital.  Interestingly though, she delivered it as if....Tsunami was like a 'forgiveness' that suddenly came to the lives of people in the early morning without notice...

Now, what is this? Acapela boys? Sort of. They are students of Malay-Indonesian Department who -- I think-- did their best in delivering a Korean song-translated into Indonesian. So, it was pretty much still a Korean song but since the lyric was in Indonesia, a combined or mixed feeling being caught in the middle of both countries' nuance was inevitable. 

Good thing that they did a good job of singing. 

Well, they did have guts to show off their tricks of ingenuity. ^^

This one did crack me UP. I was laughing the whole session while they were singing one of Indonesia's popular pop song. It was no other than P-Project or Project Pop's Pacarku Superstar.^^ the whole group was so hilarious in terms of movements, mimicking, and of course....their rendering of what it was supposed to be.

Nice dance and moves, guys^^

Indonesia-Korea CUltural Show (part 1)

한국-인도네시아 문화 교류의 밤  or Malam Pertukaran Budaya Indonesia - Korea or Indonesia - Korea Cultural Exchange Show was finally going to the an end. It had lasted for over one and a half an hour at HUFS BRICS hall as I mentioned earlier. So, this next performance was what was called as 모듬북 'Modeumbuk' . I think it was a kind of drum beating show in which some performers showed off their talents of arranging extremely fantastic sounds of drums through their energy and power.

The modeumbuk was accompanied by the 사자춤 or Lion Dance which to me was a kind of Barongsai in Indonesian-Chinese culture. The lion was accompanied by a masked dancer whose task was somewhat to tame the ferocious lion--that's what I thought.

See the lion? kinda cute, eh? The lion and the masked dancer were dancing to the tune and drum beats that kept on accompanying their movements. 

I think it worth to mention that this drum group was led by one of Korea's famous drum guru named Mr. Kim Kyu Hyeong (김규형). He did show off his energized power in rendering one of the most intricate and powerful performance in allowing the audience know and feel the rhythm he was offering--through his ever-smiling face^^

Finally, the Indonesia-Korea Cultural show was highlighted or somewhat nicely closed with what we called as 교제의 춤  or friendship dance. This time, some Indonesia dancers invited their Korean counterparts from the audience to come up on stage and dance along together in tune with Indonesian (Betawi) traditional music arrangement that specially.......delivered Korea's most famous song; Arirang.^^

What could be more interesting than this?

I do hope that through this kind of' extravaganza' show, both countries could learn 

and nurture close ties forever.