Nari Mataya Lokatara

I couldn’t really remember when was the last time i’ve watched an art dance performance. It’s clearly because i’ve spent most of my time doing tasks and projects and didn’t really reward myself with some entertainment. I didn’t think that travelling was a good idea since it’s pretty impossible to manage the time for it now. So i guess watching a dance performance would be a right pick, and it turned out that i was very right. I decided to watch one hat was held by FISIP UI Dance Community called Nari Mataya Lokatara which means a group of woman dancers who dances beautifully. On the other hand, i was also there to support my cousin Nindy who was one of the traditional dancers there.

The place was full packed, with parents, family, friends, and even public people. I knew that the show was about to start when the lights were dimmed off, and the place turned pitch black. Then came a group of traditional dancers performing a dance called Lenggang Maye, a welcoming Melayu dance performed by alumni FISIP UI, a great dance to start the show.

I was pretty surprised by the whole concept they were performing. At first i had in mind that they were only going to perform a list of dances, but eventually they packed it up into a drama with a story tale. And old man opened the first scene of the drama, shortly previewing the story. The story was about a girl named Nari who was raised in a professional dancers family. But sadly Nari couldn’t give out her best, so then she entered another side of the world to keep on learning about dancing.

The first dance performed was a Javanesse dance, that pictured happiness and the beauty of Javaneese woman. 1 type of dance, 2 costumes set. My mind was at first questioned why they would dance in a costume that looks as if they wanted to go to a market with a farmers hat. But slowly, they took off the fabric and revealed their true costume, a costume that i truly want to wear & adore.

Then followed by a dance called Nindak Mask Dance. The character Nari showed up followed by a group of woman dancers and (finally) men dancers! In this scene, it shows Nari’s eager to learn dancing. From the dance’s name we know that there’s going to be a mask involved, and yet there is. All the dancers were fighting for a chance to wear the mask, and the wowing part starts here. There was a slowmotion mode while they were fighting and to me, this was cool.

After this came a part where Nari entered the other element after opening a box from an old lady. I loved the idea how they set Nari to enter another element in the universe, a darker element where they showed other kinds of dances like hip hop, contamporary dance, and sexy dance here. My heart fell for the contamporary dance that was very beautiful, very romantic. The moves somehow clearly shows the whole drama that was going on.

There were also some traditional dances performed afterwards like Kalimantan Zalecha Dance and Zapin Betawi Dance ( performed by my cousin!). Then Sexy dance was there to close the show, with its beatful songs.

I was fully entertained, and overwhelmed. Traditional and modern dances are pretty much different but they somehow packed it perfectly in 1 show. I also give a big applouse the the musicians and lighting crews that completed the show. I do have 1 quote that i got inspired by, “This dance performance is a form of respect to our Indonesian culture”.