GAZETTE.NET - MADE IN INDONESIA INITIATED IN SILVER SPRING
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The festival, which will take place on Ellsworth Drive, will consist of a range of demonstrations and activities. Meant for all ages, children will have their own section where they can make arts and crafts including puppets.
"We have a pattern they can cut and color and put it on a stick," Naratama says.
Food vendors also will be present, offering dishes such as satay, which are meat skewers that differ in taste and preparation from island to island.
"We have different versions of satay.You can try the Indonesian satay and also you can find a lot of different Indonesian food," Naratama says.
A fashion show by Batik Boutique will show of a line of brightly colored traditional clothing.
Indonesian music will be heard throughout the day. House of Angklung, an all-bamboo orchestra, will play alongside more modern sounds.
"It's not only traditional things. We have a young band and they're going to sing Indonesian songs," Naratama says. "You can find anything about Indonesia that day."
Dancers will accompany music from groups like Gamelan Wrhatnala USA. Started in Bali in 1965 by dancer composer and choreographer I Gusti Agung Ngurah Supartha, the ensemble now has two additional locations stateside, in West Virginia at Shepherd University and Germantown. The founder's son Pratimawan Supartha has been director of the Germantown school for 5 years; he also directs the Shepherd site.
The school offers dances such as the Kecak Dance from Bali. The origins of these dances influence their movement and speed. Balinese dance, for example, is fast-paced and incorporates more eye movements. Beginners at Wrhatnala start with steps from the Sumatran island of Aceh, which is slower in tempo. Other dances taught by the school include Jaipong, a Sudanese dance accompanied by a blend of traditional West Javanese and Balinese music. An orchestra of mainly drums and a gong will provide the "gangsa," or melody.
Supartha says students will perform throughout the event because of the unique occasion.
"Since this is the first Indonesian festival in Maryland, it is our mission to fill the full day," Supartha says. "That's our main thing: to get the audience, the communities, to see the difference in the culture."
Indonesian dance derives some its movements from indigenous martial art forms. Martial arts schools such as Pencak Silat Al-Azhar will take part in the festival. Al-Azhar specializes in a method called Pencak Silat. Wona Sumantri, who has been at Al-Azhar for 25 years, says the graceful nature of the fighting makes it easy to incorporate it into Indonesian dance. On Saturday, students will give a demonstration, followed by a free clinic.
"It's going to be fast and it might look like we are just throwing our hands around and our legs around in the air," Sumantri says. "The clinic itself will kind of slow things down to show how we will use the application, the techniques."
Like Indonesian dance, Pencak Silat is diverse and techniques vary from island to island. Al-Azhar's methods originated in Southern Indonesia.
"Our particular style, it utilizes a lot of hand movements and leg movements ... techniques," Sumantri says. "Whereas in Sumatra, they might use lower stances."
Pencak Silat is linked to the nation's heritage. The first clear forms of the martial art began to emerge in the sixth century and masters of Pencak Silat were regarded as equivalents of European knights. The form was also used in Indonesian campaigns against its Dutch and Japanese occupiers in the 20th century.
Pencak Silat students are trained in both hand-to-hand combat and with weapons. In Al-Azhar, weapons are not used until after the first year. The fighting style was created to take on multiple attackers at once, which requires students to move quickly from a crouched position to standing upright.
The biggest fight for Naratama has been gaining sponsors for her festival, but with the day coming closer, she looks forward to sharing her culture with Silver Spring.
"So far, so good," she says. "I'm excited and hope everything goes well and everybody likes it."
"Made In Indonesia" will be held Saturday on Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring. The event runs from 11a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free. Visit www.downtownsilverspring.com/events.
BETHESDA MAGAZINE.COM - MADE IN INDONESIA
Downtown Silver Spring was bustling with activities on Sunday, September 16 as thousands of visitors attended the 2nd Made in Indonesia Festival.
Indonesian art communities in the Washington, DC, metro area performed various on-the street performances from Reog Ponorogo, a majestic lion dance from the country’s East Java region, to Pencak Silat or its traditional martial arts, from an acoustic bamboo orchestra (angklung) to batik fashion shows and tor-tor dance from North Sumatera.
The street fair aimed to introduce the South East Asian nation to the American public. Nineteen booths offered a wide variety of Indonesian products for sale including furniture, art, and food.
Indonesia’s own top 5 finalist of the X-Factor Netherland, Dony Vernianto, hosted the event.
Made in Indonesia Festival is produced by Maya Naratama, an Indonesian-native, and her Maryland-based production company, Acha Productions,LLC.
Maya Naratama, creator of Saturday's Made In Indonesia street festival, says the Downtown Silver Spring event's purpose is to celebrate and introduce audiences to the archipelago's culture.
The first rule of learning about Indonesia is that with more than 17,500 islands and 33 provinces, there is a lot to learn.
Naratama came to America six years ago to expand her video production company ACHA Productions, LLC. Since moving her Jakarta-based firm from the capital, Naratama says her dream has been to hold an Indonesian-themed event. She hopes to show a side of her native country that is rarely depicted on television.
"You see the news about Indonesia; everything's about natural disaster and the thing is Indonesia is more than that," Naratama says. "We have a lot of beautiful traditional things that we can show."