In this tari topeng residency, we managed to learn two short choreographies of two characters: Sabrang and Bapang, in the span of less than 2 weeks. The lessons were challenging for me as for some parts of the dance, the teachers went through the dance steps slowly and with more detail, but on other days, they teach it really fast and I find myself struggling to catch up.
Adaptability becomes an important trait to adopt; as we encounter the challenges of 1) memorising the choreography, 2) dancing with the mask and costume, 3) executing the moves to perfection and 4) embodying the traits of the character in every movement (strength, playfulness, etc).
For 1) and 3), memorising and execution is a part of every dance genre, so we are no strangers to that. For 2), the mask removes your peripheral vision, which increases the difficulty of seeing one’s position relative to other dancers, especially with formation changes. The costume is an integral part of the choreography; for example, the hanging cloth balls (koncer) that are part of the headpiece (khuluk) are pushed outwards away from the face, and the red cloth that is draped over the shoulders (sampur) is thrown to the side or the front. For 4), I am still struggling to grasp the concept that I am not just a dancer doing choreography; rather I am portraying a character; so it is almost like acting rather than dancing.
In my personal experience, having tried a myriad of dance genres, tari topeng has to be one of the most difficult dance forms I have learnt. The airflow restriction of the mask presents a challenge in itself, and if I do not remind myself to breathe, or if I panic, my stamina and energy goes down significantly and I will make mistakes during the dance, which unfortunately happened for the 2nd Bapang performance.
Another personal struggle would be dealing with fatigue. In other dance genres, even if I am running on a severe lack of sleep and energy, I would still be able to execute the choreography with minimal difficulty. However, in tari topeng, even the slightest amount of tiredness hinders my ability to perform the dance at a baseline level. It is upsetting to me that I am not able to overcome my exhaustion to perform well unlike my peers, but I plan to practice more with the mask now that I am back in Singapore to improve my stamina for tari topeng.
At the back of my mind, there is also the added responsibility of bringing this dance form back to Singapore. As there is some time between the residency and our performance next year, for stamina practice, I plan to wear the mask while doing regular daily activities at home. As I already struggle to breathe while wearing the mask at rest, I was thinking to train myself to get used to the airflow restriction for long periods of time. In addition, I hope that the 4 of us can meet up at least once a month to practice what we have learnt + finding videos online or additional online classes to learn more choreography or techniques, whether for the same or new characters.
Megan Lee Xin Hui Sign off. ❤️