Wied Sendjayani, A Dancing Heart

KOMPAS/PUTU FAJAR ARCANA

Wied Sendjayani

It\'s been a long time since the mirrors at the Maniratari Dance Company Solo studio reflected moving bodies. Some of the mirrors even look blurry and rarely cleaned. They may also miss the faces of children who used to practice every day under the guidance of dancer Wied Sendjayani, 71. Only the studio floor seems to have just been cemented, albeit modestly.

It has been 18 years for Wied, that’s how the founder of the Maniratari Dance Company usually called, did not dance. She was more fun painting in the living room of the building that stands right in front of the studio. Some of her paintings are stored in a rather damp space.

"This room is all I have," said Wied. We talked one afternoon sitting on a chair made of used tires on the terrace of her house in the Tegalharjo area of Surakarta, Central Java.

At the end of April 2019, Wied came to perform again for the first time in nearly two decades. While celebrating World Dance Day at ISI Surakarta, as a maestro, Wied danced with two of her students, Siko Setyawan and Imey.

"I have not moved for 18 years, so I don’t move a lot. Let Siko and Imey improvise," she said after dancing.

Next to where we were chatting was a poster that reads, "The Party Is Not Over". There is a picture of Siko with Adisna Kumaralalita, her grandchild. The two dancers were only in their teens in 2009.

"If I\'m not mistaken, they were still in high school," Wied said.

Wied never expected that it was her "last" work ever performed in various art centers, such as the Surakarta Cultural Park, Jakarta Arts House and Teater Utan Kayu Jakarta.

"I am getting old, the children are also teenagers and study in different places, so Maniratari then became a vacuum," Wied said.

After returning from her career in Europe as a dancer in 1984, Wied never dreamed of building a dance studio. She felt that she did not deserve to be a teacher because she did not have a certificate for teaching.

In addition, while in Europe, she also "only" worked as a dancer and even attended a dance school at Escuela Centro de Dansa, Madrid, Spain (1976-1977). Although she has taken classes in modern jazz, classical ballet and contemporary dance, Wied still considers herself unfit to teach.

"Because I don\'t have dance techniques," Wied said on Monday (22/7/2019).

When she returned to Surakarta, a friend urged Wied to transfer the dance skill she obtained while in Europe. Unwillingly, Wied accepted two of her friends as students. For four months, she only had those two students. Discouraged by the lack of progress, she then tried to find underprivileged children to teach in her neighborhood. Thankfully, dozens of children volunteered to sacrifice their playing hours to practice dancing with Wied.

Practice discipline

Maniratari does not only teach dance. Wied is even more focused on teaching ethics and discipline to her children (students). She quoted the doctrinal teachings so that her students understood the ethics of everyday life.

"I don\'t teach dance, but roso [feel]," she said.

Roso is an aesthetic drive that emerges from the depths of the heart.

"Choreography is just an object while roso comes from the depths of our souls," said the woman who had taken art education at ASRI/SSRI Yogyakarta.

If you are training, you must focus; nobody is joking

Wied also taught hard discipline. Because without discipline, any dance cannot be performed properly. Regarding the discipline, Wied applied the habits she got while in Europe. She, for example, prohibited children who are late from attending class.

"If you are training, you must focus; nobody is joking," she said.

At certain times, Wied invited her students to picnic together in Tawangmangu. All the costs of the picnic were on her.

"The dance training is also free, I also prepare their meals," she said.

Actually, Wied added, everything she did was to help build strong and independent children. The purpose of Maniratari was not only to give birth to reliable dancers, but also to nurture creative human beings with strong personalities.

KOMPAS/PUTU FAJAR ARCANA

Wied Sendjayani

Later it was proven that some of her students became reliable dancers in various dance studios in Jakarta. Siko, she said, had her own community in Jakarta. Meritz, Wied\'s student, was now part of the Namarina Ballet in Jakarta. Two of her students, Ayu and Iksan (both women), obtained scholarships to study dancing in the Netherlands.

Long journey

Since moving from Surakarta to Yogyakarta, Wied actually wanted to learn to paint. However, a friend of hers invited her to take part in training at Bengkel Teater Rendra workshop. In 1966, she joined Rendra, who had just returned from the United States, to study theater. At Bengkel Teater Rendra, Wied met with Putu Wijaya, Amaq Baldjun and Entik Kamdani.

"So, at Bengkel Rendra, I learned body movements that relied on roso. That used to be called contemporary," Wied said.

She recalled that in a show near Yogyakarta Square in 1969, Bengkel Teater Rendra was booed and pelted with bottles.

Wied traveled across Europe bringing the contemporary dance or dancing by relying on improvisation.

"This is what attracts Europeans," she said.

But they were inexpensive, between Rp 7,500 [54 US cents] and Rp 15,000 per 64 pages. So, it was not enough to support the family.

Before getting an offer to work as a dancer to Europe, in 1970 she went back to Surakarta because her father was seriously ill. She brought her husband and two children to move to Surakarta. Due to a lack of activities in Surakarta, Wied then created a comic strip named Wied Sendja. Her comic strips were published by the Prasidha Solo Publishers.

"But they were inexpensive, between Rp 7,500 [54 US cents] and Rp 15,000 per 64 pages. So, it was not enough to support the family," she said.

That is also why she often took part-time work. Once, for example, the rock band Trenchem held a concert in Semarang. She along with Entik Kamdani performed a dance in between sets.

"It stirred uproar in the media. My dance was called erotic dance!" Wied said, laughing.

It was this long road that led Wied to work while studying dance in Europe. Apart from Escuela Centro de Dansa, Wied also took dance courses in Germany and Austria (1979-1984). For this reason, she had a list of teachers as long as her career as a dancer.

Her most memorable experience was none other than when she was visited by ballet dancer Farida Oetoyo, who in 1997 was leading the Jakarta Arts House (GKJ). Farida did not expect village children who did not have the posture of a dancer to perform Wied\'s Ejeg-Eler dance very well. A group of Maniratari children then danced at the GKJ ahead of the Reform movement in the country.

"Bu Farida cried seeing the seriousness of the young children dancing," recalled Wied. “It is not about how to memorize dance movements, but how to evoke an aesthetic sensation from the depths of the soul so that the heart dances, too.”

KOMPAS/PUTU FAJAR ARCANA

Wied Sendjayani

Wied Sendjayani

Born: Solo, 10 July 1948

Education:

- ASRI/SSRI Yogyakarta (1965-1966)

- Escuela Centro de Dansa Madrid (1976-1977)

- Dance Courses Germany and Austria (1979-1984)

Works:

- Alkisah (Tale) (1987)

- Alisah dengan Dunia Ajaibnya (Alisah and Her Magic World) (1987)

- Ukara Ndonya (1988)

- RaKaTaKaTa (1989)

- Vignette (1990)

- Laut Bernafas (Breathing Ocean) (1990)

- Tempur (Battle) (1991)

-Air Mata Bulan (Moon’s Tears) (1993)

- Nanyian Sendja (1997)

- Ejeg-Eler (1998)

- Selamat Pagi Bu Sendja (Good Morning, Mrs Sendja) (2001)

- Katakan Lagi Selamat Pagi (Say Good Morning Again) (2003)

- Sapuan Langkah Panjang (Long Walk) (2005)

- Who Really Am (2010)