Asia Dance Channel

Understanding Culture through Performances
Imagined Communities Revisited
The International Islamic University Malaysia
23 November 2009

In conjunction with the Imagined Communities Revisited conference held at the International Islamic University Malaysia, two established speakers were invited to give talks for the program ‘Understanding Culture through Performance’. Professor Dato’ Dr. Ghulam Sarwar Yousof spoke about a Malaysian traditional dance, Makyong and the Notion of Malayness. Another speaker, Marion D’Cruz gave a talk entitled In Search of Contemporary Malaysian Dance, In Search of Malaysia. Both of these talks referred to very different dances in Malaysia but these served as another way to understand Malaysian culture.

Professor Ghulam first gave the audience a short introduction to the Malaysian traditional dance Makyong in a short video. In his talk, he defined Makyong and attempted to trace its origins. From historical and geographical views, he explained that Makyong is also found in other countries and not only in Malaysia. He also told the audience that, in other countries, there are different definitions of this traditional dance and many explanations on how the art from actually began.

In Malaysia, the traditional dance of Makyong is found in Kelantan and usually small performances are held in small villages. Professor Ghulam told the audience that Makyong is always performed to stories related to gods. He also mentions in his talk that this traditional dance doesn’t belong to any one culture because some of Makyong’s stories are related to Buddhism. One of these famous stories related to Buddhism is ‘The Prince of the Shadow,’ which has nothing to do with Islam except for the instruments that were used for the performance. He found it interesting that the origin of Makyong is still unknown. Makyong is usually performed as a ritual or for entertainment. One of the three rituals of Makyong is to heal the dancers from what they believe to be a lost energy from their body. In Professor Ghulam’s discussion, the traditional dance of Makyong cannot be regarded as a manifesto of Malay culture unless some of the major issues have been clarified.

Marion D’Cruz talks about her own work in contemporary dance drawing parallels to politics and social funds in Malaysia. At the beginning of her talk she introduces herself to the audience by giving a brief biography on her previous experience as a student developing an expertise on classical dances. While she was talking about her experience, she also talked about her work titled Bunga Manga Bunga Raya, a play about the way she sees Malaysia. The play posits her intense grieves for both personal and national lost. In the making of the production, she invited people from different backgrounds and gathered ideas on how they see Malaysia now. In the end, the response to Bunga Manga was overwhelming and she received good feedbacks from the audiences. For Marion, she is an angry artist who develops angry works about issues facing the country. At the end of her talk, she allowed the audience to watch a short seven minute clip of the performance ‘Bunga Manga Bunga Raya’.

What was clear to me is that stories, old and new, are manifested into performances. These two discussions, though it did not clearly address ‘Understanding Culture through Performance’, reveal the extreme ends of the very wide spectrum of what we understand Malaysian culture to be; and that includes what we “imagine” it to be.