(Ayu Permatasari)
The
sound of breath and sigh heard, even before the dancers entering the stage,
brought the audience to seek and wonder: what, who, what is it. A few minutes
later, 8 female dancers with white costumes came into the spotlight and dance,
still with their audible breaths and sighs exaggerated into expressions of
fear/shock, the sound one makes when eating a food that is too spicy, the sound
of a mother giving birth, the sound of people marching, etc. Sound and movement are the show’s strongest
attributes, as Ayu Permatasari manages to somehow create a beautiful
arrangement out of the seemingly inharmonious sounds coming from the dancers. No
dancer was weaker than the other one, as their movements, just as Ayu’s
previous works, show great energy, power and shapes that are just as strong.
There
is no doubt that Ayu Permatasari is indeed one of the choreographers that
possess a strong, hard and disciplined attitudes. Yet, her works are always
able to generate a sense of innocence, despite actually having a deeper meaning
that relates to her life journey; and HAH
is no exception.
When
creating HAH, Ayu was inspired by the
sound of breath that we hear every day, but more specifically, she was
subconsciously inspired by the breath of Kotabumi, Lampung, where she was born
and raised as a woman. The main theme of HAH,
therefore, is the representation of the story and experience of a woman named
Ayu Permatasari, which, in a sense, can be interpreted as Ayu Permatasari’s
idea of feminism. Certainly, the feminism theme does not only concern the fact
that Ayu is a woman, but talking about feminism means talking about women;
which means that Ayu’s feminism concerns very much with her experience as a
woman.
Back
in her hometown, Ayu was raised by a strict and rough father who “worked” as
the local thug. Her memories with her father are sometimes revealed in many of
her works, including HAH. The way she was raised, in addition to the
town’s background of being dominated by tough women (according to her), affects
Ayu’s thoughts on the different ideas of what it means to be a woman.
The
whole work of HAH may seem innocent
with the form and combination of movement patterns and sound inspired by
breath, but more than that, in each movement, the breath can sound firm,
strong, tough, and hard, yet other times it can be subtle, supple, and sexy.
These impressions represent the definition of a woman to Ayu. Women can be
strong, but at times, they can be soft, supple, and fragile. Their strength,
toughness, and vigor do not mean that they want to compete with men; instead,
they show willingness to be their own self, to pursue their own desire, without
deserting their womanly experience and story.
Strong
into subtle, soft to hard, and supple to tough; all becomes harmony in the body
of a woman as portrayed in HAH. It’s
not just a breath of air, it’s the breath of women, it’s the breath of Ayu
Permatasari’s history, and it is HAH.
Author: Nia Agustina
Translator: Eka Wahyuni
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