Getting inclusive about culture

Badan Warisan’s Elizabeth Cardosa (standing) with Aswara’s Joseph Gonzales.

The late Gopal Shetty teaching a young girl to dance in a 1959 file picture.

Dancer-choreographer Shafirul Suhaimi of Akademi Seni Kebangsaan.

THE Boh Cameronian Cross-Cultural Champion of the Arts award was introduced in 2001 but the first of such work, say three veteran practitioners, was way back in 1978.

Inderaputera, claim Elizabeth Cardosa, Joseph Gonzales and Marion D’Cruz, which was a showpiece for, get this, the Ninth Sea Games.

“Indraputera was a multicultural showpiece but offered a synergistic mix,” says Cardosa.

The artistic director was the late Krishen Jit. He was assisted by Zamin Haron (better known as Chandrabhanu) and Supiat Mukri, director of the then Kompleks Budaya Negara, the forerunner to Istana Budaya.

“When I saw Gopal Shetty dance in Indraputera, I saw a very beautiful dancer, not just another Indian fella,” says Cardosa, a Chinese-Italian-Japanese Malaysian. “Culture then, unlike today, was not so polarised. Just because you are Indian, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a patriot.”

“I remember that show!” says Gonzales. “Things were different then. The 1975 World Cup hockey semifinal saw India versus Malaysia. We had a day off from school in the spirit of nationalism. Today? Not even if you win!”

In Malaysia, culture and religion in the arts is always a great topic over coffee or tea. What represents the arts to the world, like the Malaysia Truly Asia shows, is ministry-funded or organised. One set of steps, garbed in every community of Malaysia, only makes arts practitioners giggle.

The late Gopal Shetty, of the Temple Of Fine Arts, said in the early 80s that to get a Malaysian style, we have to merge all the local dances and from there, create new movements and music with which everyone can identify.

Contemporary dance, say D’Cruz and Gonzales, celebrates the diversity of all Malaysians.

And D’Cruz, Gonzales and Cardosa emphasise that education is about empowering, even if Arts and Heritage is no longer in the relevant ministry’s title, now called Information, Communications and Culture.

The Boh award is the first national level award that specifically honours arts practitioners for championing outreach efforts that have enriched the cultural scene of Malaysia.

Culture shapes our values and identity, muses Cardosa, executive director of heritage organisation Badan Warisan since 2000.

She thinks she got her award in 2003 for her 14 years of work at the British Council as an arts administrator and for being a “culture bureaucrat”.

“It was a trigger for ideas and for developmental work in the arts,” she says.

Dancer-choreographer Gonzales won the award last year. He’s gung-ho about dance education in Malaysia, and has been the head of dance at Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (Aswara) for a decade.

“A large sector of people don’t have a history of what has been done in arts development. At Aswara, it’s about developing the performance and not just academic achievement. Students these days say they scored 20As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. But I find they can’t think.”

In 2006, D’Cruz won the award for her work with the 25-year-old Five Arts Centre, among other activities. Starting in the 80s, her fledgling steps towards forming a Malaysian contemporary dance scene along with odissi master Ramli Ibrahim were highly acclaimed.

D’Cruz is still exploring a new language in dance as in Urn Piece (1988) and War On Iraq (2003/4). She’s also well-known for her work with young arts practitioners here, among them Mark Teh of Five Arts Centre, and in the region.

Recalling her recognition at the second annual Boh Cameronian Arts Awards in 2003, Cardosa says the British Council’s work in the 90s was “groundbreaking” in terms of arts collaboration, among other activities.

“Arts residencies, grants, bringing people to train locals and sending our people on study tours and attachments.”

D’Cruz was one such recipient as were other Boh Cameronian award winners, including arts educator Janet Pillai and Ramli Ibrahim.

“In those days, people in the arts, if they wanted to pursue their passion, worked during day, took leave, spent their own money to sign up for courses abroad. There was no proper stage management, or Malaysians trained in production lighting or design...”

For Cardosa, the work done in the early 90s raised the benchmark for arts activities and development. There was a professional exchange in dance, theatre, music. Like Debut, a stage for young classical musicians, which ran for three years ending around 1999 and performances were held every quarter.

“Do you know, at least 100,000 children take classical music exams in Malaysia and Singapore every year? Before the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra started, these youths had nowhere to perform in a professional capacity.

“Debut offered then that stage at the British Council. We had an audition process, coached them. Now the MPO has a youth section. Debut was an opportunity for them and we were in a position to enable the opportunity.”

Gonzales, still bashful about his award, says “it was not just my work”. He acknowledges the stewardship of Mohd Anis Md Nor, a professor of ethnochoreology and ethnomusicology, who, he says, started the ball rolling.

It’s a shared vision — one that’s expansive and inclusive — by so many other arts practitioners like the Temple of Fine Arts, who also teach at Aswara, he says.

Gonzales says his work is geared to gun for “excellence in performance”.

“Today, the focus is on dance exchange both within and outside Malaysia. Being where I am has allowed me to grow. The dance syllabus has been revamped to be Asian, inclusive of different genres.”

If you have ever witnessed a dance-choreography showcase like the annual Jamu at Aswara, you can see the variety and innovation from the students. I’ve always found the showcases interesting from ASK graduates Aris A. Kadir and Shafirul Suhaimi to current student dancers like Suhaili Ahmad Kamil.

Gonzales says he recalls Cardosa’s work at the British Council, like bringing in Random and Ludus, causing Cardosa to exclaim delightedly: “Our (British Council) hands-on approach for dance education started with Marion going on exchange to Ludus.”

Based in Lancaster, Ludus Dance is Britain’s premier dance in education company.

Random Dance in the 90s in Britain was known for its approach to artistic choreography which also used new technology – animation, digital film, 3D architecture, electronic sound and virtual dancers — in the live choreography.

When she left British Council, says Cardosa, the performing arts in Malaysia was at a highwater mark.

For D’Cruz, the musical Nagaland by Dick Lee was another important production in cross-cultural relations. Performers were from Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. “It was choreographed in an eclectic style and 22 shows were performed in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.”

D’Cruz was trained in ballet. She began her career with a conventional sense of choreography and performance. D’Cruz says her student days at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang under lecturer Mohd Ghouse Nasaruddin, now the chairman of Aswara, were enriched by the thought-provoking discourse generated by the 1969 riots, much like Reformasi did for the twentysomethings recently.

“Who we were, what is being Malay, non-Malay, what was the meaning of identity, questions on culture and cultural identity. That kind of thing.

“You know, I and a friend were the first non-Malay women to learn wayang kulit, under the late Dalang Hamzah in USM in 1976. Then, before he died, Dalang Hamzah and I were both teaching at ASK!”

D’Cruz has a performance lecture coming up, Gostan Forward, which traces her growth as a radical artiste, revealing her choices, strategies and influences over the span of her 35-year dance career in Malaysia.

She will tell stories and perform excerpts of her favourite and most significant dances, including Terinai, Swan Song, Chilayu and many more.

Through Teater Muda and other projects, D’Cruz has helped young people create new works which reflect their lives in a multicultural society.

In 2001, D’Cruz conducted a community dance project dance in education with the Ludus Co, a thread leading back to Cardosa’s innovative work.

Asks Cardosa: “What is there to be proud about if all you are looking for the lowest common denominator? Culture today is threatening. Part of the problem is that culture has been politicised. Rather than inclusive, it has become exclusive.”

Says Gonzales: “Being part of the other culture, doesn’t mean you should be less proud of your own. That’s why cross-cultural relations through the arts is important.”

Let’s get on with it, without saying mine is better than yours. At the end of the day, it’s about respect.

* The Boh Cameronian Awards will be held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, KLCC, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur tonight. Sponsored by Boh Plantations, and organised by Kakiseni.com, the theme this year is Love, reflecting a continued appreciation and support of home-grown talent.

* Marion D’Cruz’s Gostan Forward will be staged at The Annexe Gallery, Central Market from May 8-9, at 8.30pm and May 9-10 at 2.15pm. Entry by donation: RM10 minimum. Call Five Arts Centre at 03-77254858 or e-mail fivearts@tm.net.my.