Bundo Kanduang, Paradise…a woman?
video & stage design
Bundo Kanduang Paradise…a woman? was a collaboration between the Indonesian choreographer Boi Sakti and the Dutch Indonesian choreographer Gerard Mosterd. The starting point for this concept dance theatre piece was the fusion of the dominant female perspective of the Indonesian Minang Kabau, and the dominant male perspective of the western society. The whole team, choreographers, dancers, composer, light designer and me worked on this concept for almost three months straight at the studio of Boi Sakti in Jakarta, with this very intriguing contemporary dance piece and a very successful tour in Asia and Europe as a result. I ended up making a video for every scene of the piece which was projected on a large wall of white squares on stage, in combination with the lighting design by Roland Meel (Netherlands) and the specially for this piece composed music from Leon deLorenzo (New Zealand) we were able to give each scene a distinct atmosphere that fitted the choreography of the scene best.
the video for the opening sequence of Bundo Kanduang
While most of the video scenes were almost abstract and can only been seen on stage in combination with the choreography, this dreamy scene which was entirely shot at night in the streets of Jakarta on the back of a scooter can also been seen as a video short. On stage the video became more abstract because it was fragmented by the white squares of the projection wall. The beautiful music on the video is from Leon deLorenzo, the encounters in the video were all played by the dancers Davit, Mislam, Eka Oktaviana, Verawati, Leonor Carneiro, Masako Ono, Amaranta Velarde Gonzales
Choreography: Boi G Sakti, Gerard Mosterd
Dramaturgy: Jacq Algra
Mulimedia & staging: Wilhelmusvlug
Music: Leon deLorenzo, Donny Irawan, Paul Goodman
Lighting & video technic: Roland van Meel, Sonny Sumarsono, Ignatius “Clink” Sugiart
Dancers: Davit, Mislam, Eka Oktaviana, Verawati, Leonor Carneiro, Masako Ono, Amaranta Velarde Gonzales
Theater Frascati: Multimedia kunstenaar Wilhelmusvlug heeft stevige credits in het geheel. Wilhelmusvlug tovert begoochelende beelden waarin dansers transformeren tot levend filmdoek.
Compass: Man hätte sich gewünscht, dass 60 Minuten nicht so schnell zu Ende sind.
Leeuwarder Courant: De muziek en de videoprojecties, op een achterdoek dat sterk deed denken aan een Japans kamerscherm, droegen bij aan de suggestie van diep inzicht in de geesteswereld van het oosten.
Dagblad van het Noorden: Toch is Paradise a woman? Meer dan een viering van ‘het vrouwelijke’. De voorstelling had een sterk scenische opbouw: het publiek kreeg telkens een fragment te zien van dominantie en overgave, van samen en alleen, van vrouwelijk en mannelijk. De voorstelling was daarmee in de eerste plaats modern; je herkende het idioom van de moderne dans in de confrontaties tussen individu en groep. De sferische videobeelden van Wilhelmus Vlug en de muziek van Irawan en Goodman versterkten dit nog.