Roots of Amerta Movement

Lise Lavelle

Description

Covering the early years of Javanese movement artist Prapto's teaching (1986-1997), this is a record of that period of his work

Sujets

• Contemporary dance
• Performance art
• Indonesia
• Indonésie

Informations

• Publié par: Triarchy Press
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781911193548
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

To
Martin and Thomas
Published in this first edition in 2021 by:
Triarchy Press
Axminster, England
[e-mail]
www.triarchypress.net
Copyright Triarchy Press Ltd., 2021
The right of Lise Lavelle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher
All rights reserved
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-911193-53-1
eBook ISBN: 978-1-911193-54-8

The author
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Personal names
Abbreviations
Foreword
Preface
PART I: The Movement
Chapter 1: Introduction to Amerta Movement
Chapter 2: Prapto in Java
Chapter 3: Fundamentals
Chapter 4: The Movement Practice
PART II: The Pribadi Art courses
Chapter 5: Basic
Chapter 6: Vocabulary 1: The Hill and Sukuh
Chapter 7: Vocabulary 2: Borobudur, Parangtritis and Crystallisation
Chapter 8. Communication
PART III: Messenger Art
Chapter 9. Messenger Art
On the road to a Professional Art Language
Conclusion
Epilogue: Amerta on the Road in the 21 st century
Glossary
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Unless otherwise attributed, all images are taken from Amerta Movement of Java 1986-1997 (Lavelle, 2006).
Front Cover
‘ Gunungan , The Tree of Life’
p.vii
Map of Central Java
p.viii
The author
p.20
Sukhothai Walking Buddha
p.26
The Buddha overlooking the Padepokan Lemah Putih
p.28
Some spectators
p.71
Basic 95, Practice in Pendopo
p.73
Prapto guiding 1 and 2
p.78
Climbing the pillar
p.107
Candi Sukuh
p.114
Bima and Dewaruci, Candi Sukuh
p.125
Candi Borobudur
p.130
The Borobudur mudras
p.133
Practice on the corner-platform
p.140
Suprapto Suryodarmo. (Originally published in Jakarta-Jakarta, 27 April-3 May, 1996 )
p.144
A practitioner, Parangtritis Beach
p.178
Practice at a temple site
p.186
Buddha, Candi Borobudur
p.188
Dancer, Candi Borobudur
Back Cover
Prapto moving at the Lemah Putih School
List of Tables
p. 17
The Fields: Human, Sacred and Nature
p. 42
The three sources for movement
p.129
Mudra s and attitude in Amerta Movement
p.158
Communication framework elements
p.181
Messenger Art’s three sub-courses, sites and themes
Personal names
A note on personal names in Indonesia might be helpful, especially for reading the References.
Indonesians and Javanese people generally have personal names only. This is in contrast to the Western convention of people having a personal name and a family name.
In Indonesia, personal names are cited as they stand. These personal names may consist of one or two names. Examples (related to this book) include: Suprapto Suryodarmo, Bagong Kussudiardjo, Dijah Endraningsih, Jodjana and Koentjaraningrat. In these cases, Endraningsih, Kussudiardjo and Suryodarmo are not family names, but part of the respective person’s personal name. In the case of Suprapto Suryodarmo, ‘Suprapto’ (abbr. Prapto) is his personal name (meaning ‘good coming’), given at his birth, and, ‘Suryodarmo’ (Suryadarma in Javanese writing) is the name he was given when, as an adult, he became a Buddhist. This name means ‘the learning’ or ‘the art of clarity’. Finally, sometimes, there is an initial at the beginning of an Indonesian/Javanese name, for example, F. Hari Mulyatno.
In this book, Indonesian names are rendered as such: thus I will write ‘Suprapto Suryodarmo’ or the shorter version: ‘Prapto’.
In the spoken language of Java, the name Prapto is preceded by a title of respect addressed to an older man, such as ‘Pak’ (Pak Prapto) or by the Javanese title of address to an older man, a grandfather or leader ‘Mbah’ (Mbah Prapto).
In the book’s references, I follow Western convention when listing Indonesian/Javanese names. Spelling of names follows the latest version used or preferred by that person.
Abbreviations
a.k.a.
Also known as
Indo
Indonesian
ISI
Indonesia’s National Arts Institute in Solo (Institut Seni Indonesia, Surakarta), a government, tertiary-level academy (a.k.a. STSI and ASKI Surakarta), started in 1965
Jav
Javanese
Lat
Latin
MAM
Movement Art Meetings, held by Sharing Movement (Amerta Movement practitioners) in Europe from 1999 onwards
MATS
Movement Art Teachers’ Society
Old Jav
Old Javanese
PLP
Padepokan Lemah Putih (The Lemah Putih School in Java)
Skr
Sanskrit
TBS
Taman Budaya Surakarta; Central Javanese Art Centre in Solo/Surakarta
UNS
Universitas Sebelas Maret (The University of 11 th March), Surakarta; Indonesian State University, Solo
Foreword
It was with great sadness that we heard from Lise’s family of her death just as this book was being sent to press.
Lise herself had already had to come to terms with the death of Prapto a year earlier, after the joy of his visit to Denmark in 2019.
Encouraged by Lise’s family to continue with publication, we therefore have the unhappy honour of offering The Roots of Amerta Movement in loving memory of Lise and her teacher, Prapto.
Rahayu.
Triarchy Press
April 2021
Preface
The Roots of Amerta Movement
This book looks at the early period of Suprapto Suryodarmo’s (Prapto’s) Amerta Movement in Java, i.e. the period from 1986 to 1997, starting from the establishment of the Amerta Movement School, the Padepokan Lemah Putih.
For this reason, it focuses on Prapto’s first approach to Amerta Movement which he called ‘ Pribadi Art ’ or ‘Individual Art’ or the ‘Reality’ approach, for personal development and expression. It focuses on what Prapto calls ‘nature in the body’, i.e. on our relationship to the natural world inside us and outside us, taking its point of departure in the concrete, physical world, as the term ‘Reality’ approach suggests. This book also briefly presents the second approach to Amerta Movement, ‘Messenger Art’ or the ‘Dream World’ approach, aimed at the performing arts and at message-giving beyond the individual mover’s personal life.
A long journey
A long journey has led me to write this book and I would like to share a little of that process, to explain some of the book’s background, its time horizon and my focus on Amerta Movement rather than on Prapto himself.
The 1980s and 1990s was the period when Prapto established his school in Java. That I came to practise and study Amerta Movement from 1987 on in Java has, first of all, to do with my relationship to Indonesia and the Indonesian people. In 1959, at the age of 17, I sailed to New York from Rotterdam with a bunch of other young kids on a ship with an Indonesian crew to go to school in the USA. The 10-day crossing became quite dramatic because of a violent storm over the Atlantic, a situation which was markedly aggravated for me by acute illness needing surgery. In this connection, the Indonesian crew showed exceptional help and kindness. I will never forget it and I decided to visit their country sometime in the future if at all possible.
It took nearly twenty years before this happened: in 1977-1978 I was on leave from my job as a lecturer in French Language and Literature at teachers’ college in Denmark – the Danish government having decided to close down French as a subject at teachers’ college as a cost-cutting measure. Hence, when I came to Indonesia in 1977, I was also looking for new ways of making a living. I was ready to change the centre of my life from the head and academic studies, to the physical body and somatic practice. I wanted to return to the bodily, athletic skills, or the creative and musical activities, which had filled my youth. I wanted training like that of a physiotherapist, so as to be able to get a job with which I could travel, having an urge to see the world. I was, moreover, especially interested in living rituals and in religions, not least in Buddhism.
My journey to South-East Asia in 1977 started in Thailand, at the Wat Kiriwong Buddhist temple, where I practised Vipassana meditation, mindfulness and walking meditation with the nuns there and also alone. I really liked the walking meditation, especially practising at night in the huge temple, which never slept. There was only a hard floor to rest on, day and night. This was all part of how I learnt about the way of the Buddha.
After some time, this journey took me to Indonesia, across Sumatra to Java, where I settled in the inland town of Solo/Surakarta. I continued my meditation studies, now practising a Javanese form of ‘relaxed meditation’ called Sumarah. This Javanese style of meditation, based on relaxation of the whole body, was unlike the focus on the breathing that I had practised in Thailand. I met Prapto at a number of meditation meetings guided by the Sino-Javanese meditation teacher Sudarno Ong.
The background to my settling down in Solo for some time in 1977 was that, when I arrived, I felt that I had ‘come home’. This was strange in that the smiling, light-brown Javanese people, Solo’s green fertility, the burning sun and expressive language sounds, did not seem to have anything in common with me and Denmark. Also Java, at this time, was under President Suharto’s New Order, and not a particularly peaceful place to live or study. On the contrary, this was a politically turbulent time in Indonesia, where the need for change was obvious.
The New Order in Indonesia
While I was pondering all this, at the beginning of 1978, my Indonesian visa ran out and I had to go to Singapore to renew it. On my return to Jakarta, a city of ca. 5 million, a taxi took me from the airport to the centre of town. It was only then that I fully realised the seriousness of the political situation in Indonesia and the huge country’s desperate need for a change of govern