East-West Center International Conference
Sunday, 4 July at 4:00 pm at Hawai’i Convention Center, Room 316
Performance time: 40 minutes with no intermission, followed by discussion
Presented by Garrett Kam

In Javanese, sampurna means “ideal, perfect, pure”. A sampur is a long cloth sash used in Javanese dance to accentuate and extend movements. In this new solo wayang (performance) created and performed by Garrett Kam, dance sashes are given new meanings by being used in different ways for presenting some of the most important scenes from the Ramayana, the eternal epic of devotion, separation and reunion. Masks and puppets of characters are created on stage with different colored sampur, animated and then pulled apart as the story unfolds with short narration between episodes. Mostly danced in the Javanese court style from Yogyakarta with some new interpretations, the performance includes elements from other parts of Indonesia (Bali and West Java), India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Okinawa and Taiwan, as well as some improvisation and contemporary movements. In this way, “Wayang Sampur-na” is an autobiographical work of cultures studied and places visited by Garrett since 1975. In this performance, a short Javanese dance introduces the four major character court styles of ogre king Ravana, monkey warrior Hanuman, refined hero Rama, and princess Sita. The narrative scenes are danced to traditional Javanese and Balinese melodies arranged for Western instruments by Canadian ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee, with opening and closing scenes using Asian inspired film music by Australian composer Elizabeth Drake. This is the premiere of “Wayang Sampur-na: Epic Turning Points”.

GARRETT KAM was born in Hawaii but has lived in Southeast Asia for nearly 25 years, mostly in Java and Bali. He received his bachelor’s degree in Textiles and Asian Art History in 1976, and his master’s degree in Southeast Asian History and Asian Theatre in 1987 as an East-West Center Grantee (Institute of Culture and Communication, 1985-1987) from the University of Hawai’i. Garrett studied Javanese dance from 1975 to 1979 at the University of Hawai’i, and from 1979 to 1982 learned under master court teachers of the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta, especially Sasminta Mardawa (KRT Sasmintadipura), Raden Sunartomo and Bambang Pudjasworo. Garrett was the first non-Javanese to regularly perform in the professional group of Mardawa Budaya and Pamulangan Beksa Ngayogyakarta schools of court dance and had his own troupe in Hawaii. As a Fulbright Grantee from 1987 to 1988, Garrett researched ritual in Bali where he has resided since then and is curator of the Neka Art Museum. He also serves as the only non-Balinese ritual assistant and offerings maker at one of the island’s most important Hindu-Buddhist temples.

Garrett has taught and performed Javanese dance in Hawaii at the University of Hawai’i, East-West Center, Mamiya Theatre, Leeward Community College, Kapi’olani Community College, Bishop Museum and Lyman House Museum; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Center for World Music at California Institute of the Arts in San Diego and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; in Thailand at Chulalongkorn University, The Joe Louis Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre, The Siam Society, The James H.W. Thompson Foundation and Patravadi Theatre; in Cambodia at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Sovanna Phum Khmer Art Association and The Khmer Arts Theatre; in Japan at Okinawa Christian University, Okinawa Prefecture University of the Fine Arts and Meio University; in Korea at the National Centre for Traditional Korean Performing Arts in Busan; in Indonesia at Pondok Pekak Art Center and Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets in Bali, and The Japan Foundation in Jakarta; in Singapore at the Chinese Opera Institute, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Peranakan Museum, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Centre for the Arts at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Maya Dance Theatre and Esplanade Theatres; in Taiwan at the Asian Cultural Council of Taipei and Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum; and in Sri Lanka at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.
In addition to arranging and choreographing Javanese court dances, Garrett also performs Okinawan dance which he studied from 1982 to 1987 in Hawaii. In 2007 he created a blend of it with Javanese dance called “Oki-Jawa” to show the historical links and similarities between the two cultures which he has presented in Singapore, Hawaii, Okinawa and Indonesia. As a Rockefeller Grantee, he collaborated with dancers and musicians from different countries for the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange program at UCLA in 2000, and served as cultural advisor for UCLA’s Art of Rice Traveling Theatre in 2002 and 2003. “Wayang Sampur-na” is his latest work created in 2010 using masks and puppets made from Javanese dance sashes with performance elements of different traditions. Garrett has also authored many books, articles and catalogs mostly on Southeast Asian visual and performing arts. His Ramayana in the Arts of Asia (Select Books, Singapore; Asia Books, Bangkok, 2000) is the most comprehensive and complete illustrated survey of the diverse literary, performing and artistic traditions of this epic. In addition, Garrett has served as curator and organizer for art exhibitions in Indonesia, the USA, Japan, Australia and Singapore. He has assisted with several UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage projects and a dance education program in Yogyakarta.

Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HI, USA
$25; $20 Academy members; $10 students with ID

April 16 & 17 at 8 p.m.
April 18 at 4 p.m.

Honolulu’s diverse dance communities are integrated in this innovative program showcasing professional and semi-professional dancers, who will perform either in pairs or in concert with a musician. The program includes the premiere of a new contemporary ballet piece Minou Lallemand choreographed for Duets; Japanese dance set by Gertrude Tsutsumi; Korean dance by Halla Huhm student Mary Jo Freshley; Balinese dance by Desiree A. Seguritan, and a special appearance by Los Angeles-based Simeon Den, back in town to perform a poignant modern-dance duet about mortality. Three sets of three duets (no longer than five minutes each) will be performed, with two brief intermissions.

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International Institute for Asian Studies and the University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
9 September 2010

The maritime Sama peoples make up on of the most widespread cultural groups within the southeast Asian island region.  They can be found in the Philippine Sulu Archipelago, southwestern Mindanao, Sabah, Borneo, east Kalimantan, and Sulawesi, and across many of the eastern Indonesian islands.  One specific, so-called “sea-nomadic” Sama group refers to itself as “Sea Sama” (Sama Diluat, also known as Bajau Laut).

This conference looks at the Sama Dilaut’s performing arts, focussing on kulintangan and other types of instrumental music, song repertoire, and dance. Music and dance are central to the Sama Dilaut’s identity negotiation and maintenance of cultural memory. Music and dance are direct tools in the processes of identity negotiation that localise the Sama Dilaut ‘in-between’ rather than ‘here’ or ‘there’. ‘In-between’ like the beach is in-between the land and the sea, which is difficult to define sharply because of a constant coming and going of high and low tides that blurs the line between the one and the other; but also ‘in-between’ like the present is a bridge between yesterday and tomorrow. This ‘in-between’ is, at the same time, the clear space of the Sama Dilaut’s ‘Own’.

Contact Dr. Birgit Abels at birgitabels@gmail.com | more info | Deadline: 15 January 2010

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February 29, 12:00 p.m.
Presented by Professor Surapone Virulrak, Chulalongkorn University

This research aims at studying the status of performing arts in this reign, starting from the first year of his Accession to the Throne in 1946 until the Celebration of His Majesty the King’s 72nd Birthday in 1999. The research focuses on all kinds of theatre and dance seen in Thailand during this period. All information is gleaned from documentaries, observations, interviews, and the researcher’s own experiences.

Surapone Virulrak is a Professor in Performing Arts, a Professor Emeritus in Communication Arts and a Member of the Royal Institute of Thailand. He has written three plays for the stage in Thailand and published extensively on the performing arts under the reign of Kings Rama V and Rama IX, in addition to authoring works on the performing arts in Indonesia and Thailand. Virulrak earned a Ph.D. in Drama and Theatre (Asian Theatre) from the University of Hawaii in 1980.

Dr. Kirstin Pauka, a professor of Southeast Asian Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, discusses dance within Randai.