Far Off Sounds Ep 10 - Dancers Without A Stage
Means TV
•
5m 2s
Directed by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Nick George • Documentary • 2018 • 5 minutes
Under a bridge near a train station in Jakarta, Indonesia, an outdoor nightclub is the last of its kind, keeping a traditional Sundanese artform called Jaipong alive. Jaipong, originally a village ritual associated with prostitution, is a mixture of martial arts and live music. The mostly male audience takes turns dancing with the Ronggeng (female dancers) and Sinden (singers), as the music is played with a ferocious tenacity, cycling through relentlessly repetitive hypnotic patterns. We tranced out into the early morning with the Jaipong group and spoke with the club owner to find out what keeps the club alive.
Jaipong (or Jaipongan) is a relatively recent Sundanese music and dance tradition that evolved from a mix of Ketuk Tilu music and Pencak Silat martial arts. There's a unique relationship between the Kendang (drummer), Ronngeng (female dancers), and the male dancers. We won't fully go into that at this point (check out the book Erotic Triangles by Henry Spiller), but if you look closely, you'll notice the male dancer (Bajidor) begins to command the Kendang player with his free-form Pencak Silat movements, creating a truly fascinating dynamic of live performance!
Up Next in Means TV
-
Far Off Sounds Ep 11 - Mister Moonbeam
Directed by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Nick George • Documentary • 2018 • 11 minutes
On any given night, you may find yourself serenaded by a living mannequin on Sunset Blvd. A Gulf War veteran, motorcycle gang member, stockbroker, chimney sweep, inventor, musician, and brilliant performer, we ha...
-
Far Off Sounds Ep 12 - Hollerin'
Directed by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Nick George • Documentary • 2018 • 8 minutes
First held in 1969 in Spivey’s Corner, North Carolina, the annual National Hollerin’ Contest is a daylong celebration of Southern cultural heritage and preservation of an archaic means of long distance communicat...
-
Far Off Sounds Ep 13 - The Space Lady
Directed by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Nick George • Documentary • With Susan Dietrich Schneider • 2018 • 8 minutes
The Space Lady, aka Susan Dietrich Schneider, became a staple of the Bay Area outsider music scene through years of busking the streets out of necessity. Her ethereal, echo-laden a...
