Eko Supriyanto’s new solo Salt will have its Australian premiere at Melbourne’s Dancehouse this November.
The Indonesian choreographer’s works have been presented at the Sydney Festival and Asia TOPA and he is considered to be a pioneer in Indonesian contemporary dance. In Salt he engages in a web of relations between his Javanese heritage and the rhythm of the underwater world – a world without gravity where new perspectives emerge. Drawing from his classical dance training, his diving experience, and the Javanese agricultural tradition of carving in the ground, Salt takes the forms of Jatilan (Magelang folk trance dance) and Cakelele (war dance from North Maluku) and places them within the state of weightlessness.
Propelled by the experience of diving beneath the surface, Salt address the rhythm and force of the ocean, which makes up 80% of the Indonesian archipelago. Beneath the surface power relations and identities are levelled. In Salt, Supriyanto plunges into a state of anti-gravity beneath the ocean surface, a dance that addresses embedded cultural hierarchies and changing perspectives. He unravels his roots and vocabulary as a classically trained dancer that is tied to dominant Javanese agricultural history. He asks if it’s possible for the gaze to suspend all projected perceptions.
Head to the Dancehouse website for more info.
Top: Eko Supriyanto. Photo: David Fajar.