One of the pioneers – and today a Master – of contemporary Asian dance, Sardono Kusumo returns to Italy, thanks to a project set up by the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies (IISMC). Hailed by the New York Times as Indonesia’s “most famous but also most rebellious choreographer and dancer”, Kusumo trained in the classical style of the Javanese courts and is now the principal dancer in the prestigious Ramayana Ballet from Prambanan (Central Java).

Kusumo also received a modernist “initiation” in New York, however, by studying at Martha Graham’s studio in 1964. A choreographer, filmmaker, painter, environmental activist, lecturer, performer and educator, he is presenting a new production at the Fondazione Cini:  The Family of Man on the Sea, inspired by the theme of the sea and human relations with that world.

The starting point for the performance are some images with a strong visual impact: paintings by Delacroix and Raden Saleh, and photos and videos of the recent devasting tsunamis in Indonesia.

---

24 Oct. | 5 pm
Dancing with my camera on my finger  

Auditorium Santa Margherita / Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Conversation with Sardono W. Kusumo and film
Presentation by Giovanni De Zorzi, coordination by Vito Di Bernardi

Event in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy and the Cultural Heritage

---

25 Oct. | 6 pm
The Family of Man and the Sea
Fondazione Giorgio Cini /Squero Auditorium

 

Performance by Sardono W. Kusumo Art director, choreographer and dancer

Company: Tony “Broer” Supartono, actor;
Bambang “Besur” Suryono, dancer, actor and vocal artist;
Astri Kusuma Wardani, dancer;
Nur Handayani, singer e vocal artist;
Otto Sidharta, composer e sound designer;
Peter Szilagyi, tour manager

 

 

---

Biography

A choreographer, filmmaker, painter, environmental activist, lecturer, performer and educator, Kusumo is presenting a new a site-specific production at the Fondazione Cini,  The Family of Man on the Sea, conceived for the Squero Auditorium and inspired by the theme of the sea and human relations as an element that nourishes people but also destroys lives. The starting point for the performance are some images with a strong visual impact: paintings by Delacroix and the Javan artist Raden Saleh, and photos and videos of the recent devasting tsunamis in Indonesia.

During the conception of the project, the contemporary world was always present in Sardono’s thinking, often focused on the tragedies of the Asian boat people and Mediterranean migrants. The dance and actions take place in a live soundscape, as vast and deep as the sea, created by the music of the gamelan, the female singing of the shadow theatre sindhen, the voices of forest animals reproduced using Indonesian shaman vocal and body techniques, and computerised background sounds.