Bogor, 2019

Sangaar O welcomed my mother and I for a brief residency. The generous and kind agents of this performance school dedicated to developing the living tradition of contemporary dance and located where my mother was born in 1949 folded us in as family. After traveling the country for  together by hired car and plane we settled into the Sangaar O compound built for fishery studies. While in creative meditation with distinctive butoh dancer Mas Busrok we hit upon our shared voice in a timbre of longing. Mas Busroh sang to me Galisah and I sang to Mas Busrok Chick Corea’s tune Crystal Silence. In the image below at the nearby Mahagenta Padepokan focused on evolution of living traditional music Mas Busrok is seen meaningfully sweeping his forearm above the grass between us  —I singing Crystal Silence in a live soundtrack to his improvisational movement. To reach this point Mas Busrok and I became very generous toward one another. I can still see his eyes beaming into mine.

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A three-person Indonesian Television crew documented the performance which also included a live jazz with guitarist Ari Rusandi, drummer Odi Audi, and bassist Uyung Mahagenta and  gamelan played by a very wide-smiling nice young man whose name escapes me. I sang several traditional jazz tunes with the Indonesian musicians.

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Traveling with my mother across the home of her birth and performing with Indonesians dedicating their lives to keeping contemporary performance culture alive was a rich experience.