Kama Sutra, Deadly Flute and Levitating Yoga

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

Rabindranath Tagore reportedly visited Bali and Yogyakarta some 75 years ago. As if repeating the pilgrimage of the poet, a number of doyens of Indian dance and music traveled around Bali, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Jakarta for several weeks, until early November. The Jakarta International Film Festival will be specially devoted to a retrospective of the works of Mira Nair, a contemporary female Indian film director.

The relationship between India and Indonesia is very important because, as Sukarno and Jawaharlal Nehru once said, the two countries have a long history in common. The following is TEMPO's report on the ongoing journey of the two cultures, celebrating a point of historical contact through the Festival of India.

. tempo : 173225286286.

Two 4-meter-long ropes hung down over the stage at Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki. Two dancers moved lithely, shimmying up the ropes. Then, using high-level acrobatic techniques, they demonstrated a spiritual and physical union symbolized through the complex, though seemingly effortless, movements of their bodies. Suspended in mid-air, they presented a stunning marriage between sheer skill and exquisite choreography on the one hand

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