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Upon the platform of JAMU, contemporary artists of the Faculty of Dance, ASWARA explore their creativity and experiment with new ideas. This is a crucial aspect of dance training at Malaysia’s premier school of the arts. There are many different approaches to choreography and therein lies its beauty. It is our hope that students and young Malaysian dancers will be inspired by their mentors through the intimate process of creation and who are constantly driven to create. Concurrently, the audience will further develop the ability to discuss and evaluate choreography and creativity in the artistic context. We also hope that the audience will be entertained by some of the finest dancers in the country. Thus in one evening through JAMU, the audience is served with a range of artistic styles to titillate their senses. The new works will range from that which is steeped in tradition to new and avant garde work that deals with social issues in Malaysia. “JAMU…a feast for the senses”. Mohan Ampikaipaker 2001. The 2009 installment of this award-winning dance series is around the corner, so make a date with us at ASWARA. The excitement among the choreographers is palatable, and it is important that this platform for performance exists and this year will see the choreography of 14 lecturers. This is by far the largest one yet! Therefore for logistic reasons, it will be divided into 2 programs: PROGRAM A - Date: 22&23 October 2009 (Program order subject to change) 1. Wendy Rogers – University of California, Riverside – artist-in-residence ASWARA PROGRAM B - Date: 24&25 October 2009 1. Wendy Rogers – University of California, Riverside – artist-in-residence ASWARA
"JAI JAO LOR"Director & Choreographer: Wanasak Padungsestakit "Jai Jao Lor" is a new multimedia dance theatre piece by Thai performers that reworks, from the inside out, an evolving complex of hybrid cultural forms that has built up around the tragic legend of Phra Lor (Lord Lor). The legend of Phra Lor is based in present-day Phrae Province in Northern Thailand. It centers on the tragedy of Phra Lor, the young king of the city, Mansraung, along with a pair of beautiful royal princesses from the nearby city, Srong, die in a plot engineered by the princesses' wicked grandmother. The vengeful plot that ended these three young peoples' lives marked the ending of an ongoing hateful war between these two cities, which had recently killed their kings. Because of these kings' deaths, a young, handsome, brave, and gracious crown prince, Phra Lor, becomes the new ruler of Mansraung, much to the approval of everyone there, bringing him wide fame. In Srong, the lost king's bitter and angry widow, who lives with her two twin princess granddaughters, plots for the death of Phra Lor. Tricked by their grandmother, the twin princesses from Srong hear of Phra Lor's beauty and bravery, falling instantly in love with him and wanting to meet him. To arrange for this meeting, the grandmother turns to a powerful hermit, who casts a black magic spell on Phra Lor, causing him to feel a deep lust for the two princesses from Srong. Although the young king tries to fight against this lust for the two princesses, he eventually gives into it, and leaves his town, his mother, his wife, and his responsibilities to move toward his own desires in Srong. Upon entering Srong to meet his lovers, he knows he will die. The main story ends when all three of these young people are killed by soldiers in Srong under the orders of the twins' grandmother, thus bringing great sadness to both cities. After this tragedy, the king of Srong orders the grandmother's death, after which the two cities stop fighting, and build a stupa to commemorate the senseless of loss of life and a new commitment to living in peace. Traditional interpretations of the legend are cautionary, stressing the importance of not bearing grudges, not following lust, but also of forgiving, and of showing mercy. In addition, Thais also see in Phra Lor someone who is the opposite of the ideal role known in Rama, who was the perfect king and the protector of his land and people, and of his wife.
Wansaks chose to create his "Jai Jao Lor" by working from the inside out. On the one hand, he chose to rework parts of this tradition from the inside, learning both the classical and traditional presentation modes for this legend. So he began by researching the many and varied layers of the Phra Lor performance tradition-including classical poetry, popular folk-singing and dance, new hybrid classical performance, and updates of this later version--and reworking and recombining key elements of these traditions. On the other hand, he gave the piece sharper focus by choosing to focus on the internal struggles of Phra Lor at the moment that a deep confusion between desire and duty caused by the spell being cast on him. In creating the hybrid script and choreography, this latter set of approaches is familiar to those familiar with modern performance theory often used by Western dancers. By stressing Phra Lor's conflicted mind, the performance centers on his confusion over whether to follow his duty as the good lord of the city, the good son to his mother and the good husband to his wife or to follow the call of his desire to win the hearts of the two sister-princesses of the enemy city.
Rather than showing off the traditional forms that Wanasak had learned or the familiar plotline of the Phra Lor in a pre-set way, this piece seeks to externalize the inner turmoil faced by Phra Lor, using some familiar elements from the different cultural strata of the Phra Lor cultural complex, and including some improvisation, all to show the audience the turmoil caused by his conflict between following duty and following desire. In using these interpretive approaches for the stage, Wanasak hopes to make Phra Lor appear more human and less legendary for the audience. This focus on "Jao Lor" as a person who is internally divided between duty and desire is something everyone knows, and therefore it is someone who everyone in today's audience can feel. As an experimental performance, the director wanted to directly communicate with his audience. Phra Lor experienced a mental and emotional confusion that while fighting against the strong desires stemming from the magic spell induced dark side of his lust and a chance to fulfill his desire as he the young king who seemed to have everything. Phra Lor had done thing to soothe his needs, and it was this aspect that the director could see that this was the key that he could communicate to the younger audience at the present time.
Wanasak's "Jai Jao Lor" is but one possible interpretation of the Phra Lor cultural complex using contemporary approaches of choreography and performance that may be familiar to both those with traditional training and those trained in modern approaches. He sought to understand the main character from within, focusing on his passions and imagining the struggles that ordinary performances of the piece have not stressed. He created a new dance performance by composing elements based on this inner perspective from a mix of old cultural sources. Rather than telling the story as usual or with different techniques, his focus on the conflict of main character and the externalizing of his inner struggles can make the performance meaningful and help young audiences to better relate Jao Lor to their own experiences.
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