TOT

Fitri Setyaningsih (Indonesia) - A Tranquil Star

At the end of A Tranquil Star six white rabbits hop about the stage. Tiny bodies impervious to stage

directions that map their own path through the space. The contrast with the extremely precise

choreography that precedes this final scene is enormous. Six dancers move slowly across the stage,

according to exactly measured trajectories, spinning around their axes and positioning themselves in

tight constellations. Even the blinking of their eyes is directed. Which is all the more obvious due to the

enormous false white eyelashes that light up in the dark like stars in the sky.

Precisely that, the relation of the human body to the heavenly bodies and the space that surrounds it,

forms the basis of this performance. The Indonesian Fitri Setyaningsih (1978) drew inspiration for A

Tranquil Star from a fisherman’s tribe on Sulawesi. The local fishermen have an absolutely singular

and age-old method of navigation. And they also build their homes according to unique laws based on

bodily proportions. Their body is their home, their home is their body.

After her study of classical Javanese dance, Setyaningsih became more and more interested in

contemporary dance. She started to explore. In her own words: ‘I learned to dance, but I lost the

history of the body the dance originates from.’ That is why she went on to work with unschooled

dancers and to investigate the body’s relationship to the everyday objects by which it is surrounded.

A Tranquil Star marks a renewed encounter between Setyaningsih and classically schooled Javanese

dancers, for both parties a challenging experiment.

Photos