On Repetition

Melati Suryodarmo (Indonesia)

It is the body that I am using as the main medium in my performance works. I consider my body is a container of paths and memories, and therefore it is an endless inspiring resource to unveil and to collect materials. For me the body has the capacity to connect and create lines between realities such those from our socio-cultural and political environments.

I seriously consider the body as a “living archive” which every individual can store many aspects of life, including psychological and cognitive experiences. I like the idea in the learning process of traditional dance performance. It is carried by the teacher and further given to the younger generation. Every time there are some changes and adaptation in the techniques as well as the effort to contextualizing the meaning of the dance, in which, for me, it is representing the nature of tradition. As tradition has the potential to adapt in the constant changing society, nurturing tradition means putting the position of the living archive, the body that carries the knowledges, into the main role.

Practically, in the process of developing new ideas, I often re-visit my archives such as photo and video documentation, notes, sketches, objects in order to activate senses, memory, reflection and my body as attached living archive. At this opportunity, I would like to share how the notion of repetition has been continuously carried through my practice in performance art and dance.

I have been interested in the notion of repetition since I came to the music composition of Steve Reich and Terry Riley in 1994. And I was triggered by the repetition in the Balinese Gamelan, and Gandrang Makassar, traditional music instruments and orchestra which the structure of playing them is built through repetition. In 2000, I danced on butter, fell down and got up, fell down and got up again. I came to precise moments when patterns of behavior are repeated, even when I know I take risks. I dance with the sound of Gandrang.

I am impressed by the Reog, a traditional ritual dance performance from East Java. The repetition of the music notations drove the performers into trance. I visited my memory of childhood and questioned what is the knowledge behind tradition, what is the relationship between personal and collective action in a political intended performance and how can I be free from cultural baggage? Lullaby for the Ancestors was performed in 2001 and was my attempt to visit tradition with contemporary performance practice.

Melati Suryodarmo, performed Lullaby for the Ancestors, LOT Theater Brausnchweig, 2001.

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I perform long durational performance, starting in 2002 with The Promise, then 2003 with Ale Lino, 2004 with Boundaries That Lie and 2005 with The Black Ball. These are where I stay in one spot, with a very reduced and minimal gesture or movement. In a kind of tableau vivant, I consider that stillness is a completion of repetitions, like dropping dots to enclosure a circle.

Melati Suryodarmo performed Boundaries That Lie at the Art Max, HBK, Braunschweig, 2004.

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Melati Suryodarmo, performed Ale Link, Brausnchweig, 2003

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Melati Suryodarmo, performed The Promise at the Transart 02, Brixen, Italy 2002

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Melati Suryodarmo, performed The Black Ball, at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, 2005

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In 2007, I repeatedly said “I love you” while dragging sheet of glass for five hours. In 2009, I repeated this performance for 10 days, each for 5 hours. I was triggered by the power of language and how we are constructed by language. In the meantime, language is a fragile material when its verbality cannot transfer the meaning of communication. I am also interested into language that is not expressed in verbal material, something that is unconditional. Like a loop in video tape, images are repeated, like in mantras, words are often repeated, until we arrive somewhere, in different dimension of an unknown space. For me repetition is a way to provide path to unknown and emptiness.

In 2013, I started my research which was based on my curiosities to understand the relationship between the practice of Javanese traditional spirituality, shamanism and the actual corporeality to create Sisyphus, a dance choreography piece.

Taking place in my outdoor studio and involving some dancers I am working with, I encouraged them to use our body as a tool in order to build a bridge between subconsciousness and our memories by examining and experiencing the process of possessions under the guide of experts.

Melati Suryodarmo performed I Love You at the Ebent07, Gallery Off*Ample, Barcelona, 2007.

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Inspired by Antonin Artaud’s term of Body without Organ, this project was seeking the perception and experience of performing body in its relationship with the social environment, movements, energy and spirituality. I was also interested to connect with the notion of repetition in the myth of Sisyphus.

Sisyphus appears on many lines between curse and fate, between burden and faith, repeating the reality as well as the absurd. Sisyphus enters a discourse on the history of mankind, the reality of the now, the duty to remember, the fear of forgetting, the desire to learn and predict, these generate lightness and darkness, stories and oblivion.

Based on various interpretations on Sisyphus, I intend to use the term of Sisyphus as a contextual behavior, rather than considering it as pure textual basis. But rather than that, the repetition is a kind of self-reflexive modality, in which the performer through its new beginning of its repetition presents a new individual energy and presence. The repetition principle in the long durational performance is meant to give weight to the actions, to highlight the process, and thus visually focused into the subject matter represented by the work. When the cycles are repeated, the new energy starts again from the beginning towards its end. Because the cycle is a unified repetition of actions, the whole sequence of repetitive actions, become another bigger cycle. The details of the energy of presence thus determine the power of the performer’s presence.

Repetition is very much used in the shamanistic practice too. The use of repetition techniques in spelling “mantras”, in the shamanistic dance and the repetition of music notations, are meant to give a way to enter state of emptiness or trance.

Melati Suryodarmo and dancers, exercising with shamans at her studio in Solo in 2013.

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Melati Suryodarmo and dancers, show case at her studio, Studio Plesungan, in Solo in 2014.

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Melati Suryodarmo and dancers, show case at her studio, Studio Plesungan, in Solo in 2014.

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Sisyphus choreographed by Melati Suryodarmo and performed at Jakarta Theatre, Indonesia Dance Festival, 2014

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Sisyphus choreographed by Melati Suryodarmo and performed at Jakarta Theatre, Indonesia Dance Festival, 2014.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Shamanistic method in this process will be considered as the very important supporting element of the process of creating the choreography. I am not intending to adapt neither adopt the practice of shamanism into the choreography, but it is important for the performer and myself to experience what our contemporary body can deal with the metaphysic or archaic body. Specifically, in this matter, I am very much into my idea that our nerves system can be considered as the recording medium. While especially the practice with the shamans I have had did not bring me into the total unconsciousness, I experienced the movements and remember them.

Considering that the body is a living archive, practicing the notion of repetition in terms of creating repetitive movements or actions is utilizing repetition as the path to collect memories of materials. If we believe that our nerve system contains and preserves memories and events of our individual lives, repetition gives the possibility to revisit the previous material or to create a new material. Learning from traditional practice in dance and ritual performances where intention of the presence is not merely the form created by the body and movement or actions, but rather transforming the social functionality in the spiritual context, materials are transferred through repetition in forms and then accumulated into individuals from generation to generation.

Sisyphus choreographed by Melati Suryodarmo and performed at Jakarta Theatre, Indonesia Dance Festival, 2014.

Photo courtesy of the artist