D-DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!

Banner by the Logistics Group!

DATE: 21ST OCTOBER 2010

VENUE: LT8

TIME:6-8PM

Every semester, D-DAY is a special day whereby LAB1201 Bahasa Indonesia students from 14 different project groups come together to showcast performances and presentations ranging from the memasak groups to the artistic batiks. Students are given the opportunity to choose the various projects that are of their interests. Through this learning experience, they get to come into close contact with the different cultural and social aspects of Indonesia other than merely learning Bahasa Indonesia in the classrooms. 

Without further ado, presenting "PROYEK INDONESIA KITA 2010"...

SAMAN DANCE

"Saman" is the most popular dance in Aceh and is known as the dance by the name of "Thousand hands". Performing students kneel in a row on the floor and make different kinds of movements with their bodies and hands in a coordinated manner. Starting off with simple clapping movements, and then gradually moving into more complex dance movements when the tempo of the background music increases its speed. This dance clearly tested the students' memory. At various parts of the performers, the performers were looking at each other for cues to the next movement. Small glitches were inevitable given the short amount of time the students were given to practice. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful performance and this set the tone for the night. 

WAITING NERVOUSLY TO GO ON STAGE...

SHOWING GREAT COORDINATION

OUCH!!!DANCERS HAD TO ENDURE THE PAIN OF KNEEING DOWN CONSTANTLY

KOSTUM TRADITIONAL

Here comes the group from KOSTUM TRADITIONAL…Hours of Saturday rehearsals walking up and down the steps of the LT, make-up and preparation all came to this final few minutes of presentation on stage. Albeit the initial shyness of many staring eyes which were on them, they sashayed down the LT with full confidence. The couples donned costumes ranging from various parts of Indonesia. We were literally momentarily in the setting of many Indonesian weddings. Some costumes were interesting enough to leave a deep impression to the audience. For instance, the golden heavy head gear wore by the females in Padang and the unique ‘buffalo’ headdress from Western Sumatra, which drew its roots from an old legend. 

ANGKLUNG

NEXT UP is the group from Angklung! Some background knowledge: ‘ANG’ means tone, while ‘KLUNG’ means broken. This means that each participant holds one instrument which plays a single chord on his/her hands. Hence, in order to play a piece of song with this instrument, an ANGKLUNG ENSEMBLE consisting of many participants are needed. Shaking the Angklung lightly would already produce a sound. Made of bamboo tubes, the larger the bamboo, the lower the pitch; the smaller the bamboo, the higher the pitch. 

Before the commencement of their performance, 2 members from the angklung ensemble started by giving the audience a brief introduction to the instrument and the songs that they are going to perform. After which, the conductor took her position and the actual performance was ready to start. Dressed in black tops & batik sarongs (ladies) and batik tops & black pants (guys), the ensemble looked very professional and entertaining merely just after having 3 practices together as a group! 

BATIK

Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax resisting technique. Javanese Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has special meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white. This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Other regions of Indonesia have their own unique patterns that normally take themes from everyday lives, incorporating patterns such as flowers, nature, animals, folklore or people. Students were grouped into smaller groups to do up a piece of batik art. It took several days to come up with multitude patterns and pictures which showed their creativity in the process. 

At Ibu's House with their completed artwork!

All smiles on stage!

SINGING-MENYANYI

The menyanyi serenaded the audience with their first song, “Laksar Pelangi” (when translated meant rainbow warriors). The song lyrics reflected on how we should learn to love the world we live in and fight for the dreams we believe in. The performance was somewhat like a band, with a lead singer, guitarist and someone behind the ‘drums’ (called Cajon). These special ‘drum’ instrument is played in a way whereby the ‘drummer’ has to sit on the drum, which is this huge wooden block, and hit on the front face of the Cajon in order to produce the ‘drum beats’. It was really an eye-opener for many in the audience who have not seen this instrument before.

Other than displaying their singing chops, several members of the menyanyi group also presented a mini skit in their second song, “Cari Pacar Lagi” (which literally means finding boyfriend/girlfriend again).  The skit revolved around the complicated relationship between a guy and 2 girls. The guy tried to use his manly charms to date 2 girls at the same time, however he was soon exposed and had to bear with the consequences of his actions. The skit was funny, light-hearted and it brought much laughter to the audience with their combination of both singing (the rest of the menyanyi group were singing in the background) and acting.  

BATIK JuMPUTAN

Jumputan is the technique of tying and dying a fabric to produce unique designs and to make a particular pattern. And this would be dependent on the tightness of tying the cloth. Tightness prevents the dyes from spreading and disrupting the intended pattern. Pieces like this can be made into accessories like skirts, dresses, scarves and belts for ladies to wear on.

 

MALUKU DANCE

The first sentence that the Maluku dance leader said left a lasting impression, “we risked our limbs for this”. We could tell why that is so when the performance officially commenced. It is a traditional dance that has its origins from Maluku Indonesia. It was termed a kind of FRIENDSHIP DANCE, as could be seen from the kind of camaraderie the members in this group had when they coordinated and timed perfectly every move to execute in order to give us the audience a breath-taking experience. You could literally anticipate that maybe somewhere one move could have gone awry and someone’s leg would be stuck; however, that did not happen. The group displayed agility and teamwork as they cleared each and every level of difficulty in their chorography. 

DRAMA

Being one of the final performances definitely placed a great deal of pressure on the drama group to end the night's performances with a BIG BANG! And they definitely did not fail our expectations. Input elements of a good script (wonder who came up with the story line!), narrator & characters, the story of "The Prince & Betty" was a quirky yet immensely entertaining effort from the drama peeps. Before the D-DAY started, they were already in their costumes and practicing reading lines to one another.

It was not an easy feat for the characters to incorporate the Bahasa Indonesia language into the script and speaking it in such a fluent manner. The fact that audience had a connection to the skit meant that majority of us had already mastered and had a fairly good command of the language to understand what the characters were speaking about. At times, laughter exploded and roared inside the LT to the funny gimmicks of various characters on stage. The drama group peeps never once showed any form of stage fright and shyness for the characters they had to portrayed. And eventually to the delightful finale ending of BETTY & PRINCE, with people screaming for both of them to KISS...!!!

MEMASAK-ENAK SEKALI!

After enjoying the performances, bet everyone was feeling hungry and cannot wait to adjourn outside for the makanan! These makanan were prepared at home the previous night or right before the performances by the various memasak groups. Each memasak group on average prepared about 2 dishes each. These dishes were taught to them at the houses of the IBUs. 

Missing Pictures:Klepon dan Tahu Isi

 The memasak groups: behind makanan-makanan yang enak sekali!

The food kind of served to reward everyone's efforts and hard work in putting up a terrific performance for the night! Looking at the satisfied faces of many in the audience, the memasak groups were affirmed of their culinary skills!

Thumbs up for the food!

Look at the crowd surrounding the buffet makanan!

LOGISTICS

How can we forget about the logistics group?! The logistics group was the earliest group to arrive at 4pm before the rest of the LAB1201 Bahasa Indonesia cohort. We arrived early to set up the GAMES table, MAKANAN table and the banner (which was used by many as the backdrop to take pictures). We also DIYed flowers for every performance group, these flowers were made from simple materials such as satay stick, masking tape and different colours of ribbon which were cut into strips. The GAMES table served to teach other fellow students who were interested in learning some of the traditional Indonesian games that were taught to us during our logistics session with our IBUs.  

We also had our logistics presentation...

More unsunken hereos of the night that contributed to this blog entry:

Valerie was in-charge of VIDEOS!

Photographer Yong Qiang with our logistics Ibu Agnes!

When the crowd gradually dispersed after food-tasting, the logistics group were awaiting to complete our last task of the night: clearing up! It was an easy and effortless task due to the number of people that we had.

In the midst of clearing up!

Last photo of the night...Presenting the LOGISTICS GROUP!

Terima Kasih banyak:

- All students who participated and helped make D-Day a success!

- Ibu Johanna, Ibu Fanny, Ibu Yuke, Ibu Lucy, Ibu Yenty, Ibu Eli, Ibu Agnes, Ibu Elmida, Ibu Lucia, Ibu Liana dan Ibu Indrianti (our course coordinator) for your time and effort to impart us with the necessary knowledge & skills needed!