Tri Sutrisno performs at UW-Madison
Javanese style and grace
Javanese style and grace
By Jonathan Gramling
As UW Professor Andy Sutton’s class played intricately disparate, yet uniformly harmonious gamelan music in UW’s
Mills Hall on April 25, Tri Sutrisno performed Mènak Koncar, a classical Javanese dance about the exploits of a 14th
century knight. Every movement and facial expression has purpose in the highly disciplined dance.
“When you watch, everything is flowing gracefully,” Sutrisno said in a phone interview with The Capital City Hues. “But
actually to the dancer themselves, what they feel in their muscles is very tense. It is powerful. Some dances are very, very
slow. And some can be very fast. It is very subtle. When you spread your hands, you have to stretch them as far as you can
and control them. You can feel all this tension in the muscle. Yet the result looks so fluid and graceful if you do it right.
But all the muscles in your legs, hips, around your neck, hands, fingers, they are all in control and it feels very tense and
powerful.”
According to Sutrisno, Javanese dance is taught at a very early age in order to allow the children to develop their
bodies in a way that will allow them to be flexible while performing the dance and withstand its physical challenge. “In a
way, it can be exhausting, especially the slow classical court dance,” Sutrisno said. “You have to squat for 20-25 minutes
with all of this control, it can be very exhausting.”
In addition to being used to entertain the royal court in historical Indonesia, Javanese dance was also intricately tied
with with the expression of social mores. “The movement in Javanese dance is based on aesthetic and philosophical
ideas” Sutrisno said. “The original dance derived from religious practice. In olden days, the tense movements were linked
to religious practices like ceremonies. The idea is that dance would be performed in order to obtain harmony with the
environment. It is very important to understand the function of Javanese dance. That is why we have four different styles
including refined and course.”
Classical Javanese dance uses the movement and facial expressions to tell a story. “Some movement is abstract and
some mean something,” Sutrisno explained. “When you see my costume, I am holding a scarf. The scarf itself is not any
accessory, but can be a prop or emotion. For example, you can use the scarf as water. Also if I perform a fighting scene,
| Tri Sutrisno performed a classical Javanese dance in Mills Hall |
the scarf can be a weapon. But also the scarf can be used for expressing emotion like sadness or happiness. It’s not just something used to flip flop while you
dance. It actually is telling the story as a prop as well. Also with the hand movement, you can pretend you are putting on make-up. There are many movements.
And telling the story what it is. Some hand movements are also abstract. They are beautiful movements. Some movements have specific meaning and they can
be beautiful as well.”
Sutrisno and her husband Joko live in the Minneapolis area. While it might not be a well known fact, Minnesota is one of the centers of Indonesian culture
in the United States. “I could say Minnesota, in terms of interest in Indonesian culture, has the most gamelan instruments out of all of the United States,” Sutrisno
observed. “A lot of schools have their own set, even elementary schools. Colleges have them. We also own a few sets so that when one school asks to do a
residency and then another school wants to, we don’t have to wait for another time. Sometimes, we’ll do one day at two different schools.”
The Sutrisnos came to the United States 14 years ago from their native Indonesia. Joko came to perform with The Schubert Club, a classical music
organization in St. Paul, Minnesota. “We expanded to become a community called Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota,” Sutrisno said. “The
members are American and Indonesian. We teach at schools. We do residencies from elementary school to colleges. My husband teaches the music and I
teach the dance at school. At school, the residency might be for two weeks. Some schools request three weeks to a month. Some schools only have one week.
We also do ongoing community classes here as well. We have classes for children as young as six years old. We have classes for children from 6-11 years old, 11-
16 years old and then adults. We get people from college through retirement taking the gamelan classes. For the dance, I don’t have very many retired people. I
do have youth classes for the dance and teach some who are 50 years old. In gamelan, some of the people are 70-75 years old.”
Members of the IPAAM also perform as a group called Sumunar. “Last night we did a performance in Duluth in conjunction with the Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month by the Asian studies program at the university,” Sutrisno said. “We perform not only in Minnesota, but also throughout the Midwest. We
have gone as far as California and New York.”
The Sutrisnos have come a long way to practice Javanese dance and gamelan music. It is truly a sight and a sound to behold.
For more information about Sumunar, visit their website at www.sumunar.org.
dance. It actually is telling the story as a prop as well. Also with the hand movement, you can pretend you are putting on make-up. There are many movements.
And telling the story what it is. Some hand movements are also abstract. They are beautiful movements. Some movements have specific meaning and they can
be beautiful as well.”
Sutrisno and her husband Joko live in the Minneapolis area. While it might not be a well known fact, Minnesota is one of the centers of Indonesian culture
in the United States. “I could say Minnesota, in terms of interest in Indonesian culture, has the most gamelan instruments out of all of the United States,” Sutrisno
observed. “A lot of schools have their own set, even elementary schools. Colleges have them. We also own a few sets so that when one school asks to do a
residency and then another school wants to, we don’t have to wait for another time. Sometimes, we’ll do one day at two different schools.”
The Sutrisnos came to the United States 14 years ago from their native Indonesia. Joko came to perform with The Schubert Club, a classical music
organization in St. Paul, Minnesota. “We expanded to become a community called Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota,” Sutrisno said. “The
members are American and Indonesian. We teach at schools. We do residencies from elementary school to colleges. My husband teaches the music and I
teach the dance at school. At school, the residency might be for two weeks. Some schools request three weeks to a month. Some schools only have one week.
We also do ongoing community classes here as well. We have classes for children as young as six years old. We have classes for children from 6-11 years old, 11-
16 years old and then adults. We get people from college through retirement taking the gamelan classes. For the dance, I don’t have very many retired people. I
do have youth classes for the dance and teach some who are 50 years old. In gamelan, some of the people are 70-75 years old.”
Members of the IPAAM also perform as a group called Sumunar. “Last night we did a performance in Duluth in conjunction with the Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month by the Asian studies program at the university,” Sutrisno said. “We perform not only in Minnesota, but also throughout the Midwest. We
have gone as far as California and New York.”
The Sutrisnos have come a long way to practice Javanese dance and gamelan music. It is truly a sight and a sound to behold.
For more information about Sumunar, visit their website at www.sumunar.org.