“I am trying to tell the story from the wood to steel times, which means it starts with the statues in Papua, Wayang Kulit, Wayang Golek, to dolls, to robots,” says Siompo. “Dance originally starts from the Stone Age, and that time can only be found in Papua. It spread from the east to the west of Indonesia then. In my opinion, this is the journey of what we now call hip hop. From that point, we can see how dance movement can develop into the future, because I believe almost every dance form in this world has started from Indonesian dance tradition, and this will be reflected when you are watching our show.”
Despite claiming that modern dance can be traced back to Indonesia, it hasn’t stopped Siompo from including German dancers to help interpret his trace of hip hop’s roots. While there are only two of them in We Came From The East, Siompo says they definitely highlight both differences and similarities in styles from that of the Indonesian dancers.
“When it came to the German dancers, I had held auditions in Kampnagel Theatre in Hamburg,” says the choreographer. “I met a lot of the German dancers during this process but I only chose two in the end. The first one is of both German and Ghana background, and the second is originally from Germany. They have an interesting style, different but not too different. With the Indonesian dancers, I chose them from east and west Indonesia, so they come from pretty different tribes, they speak different languages, they have different body anatomy and so on. For me, the differences help reflect something modern. With the music, I haven’t even used Western music – I used the sounds and elements from Indonesian traditions. I am trying to combine that to make something totally new. I have used some Western piano sound, but that’s it.”
For Siompo, the act of being involved in either singing or dancing is absolutely vital. Recalling the ancient Papuan motto – “if you are not singing you will die, when you are not dancing you will also die!” – the choreographer says he wasn’t likely to end up straying outside the musical sphere in his lifetime.
“Dancing is a big part of Papuan culture but I initially wanted to study music,” he says. “When I started studying at the university I changed my mind because I couldn’t pass the note music test. In Papua, when you play music it’s supposed to be really spontaneous, so I crossed back to a dance major. Afterwards I went to New York City and I joined a hip hop jam session, which we call Cyper. For the first time in NYC I got to do a bit of performing with my usual movements. They came to me afterwards and said that I definitely had my own style! From that moment on, I discovered that my hip hop style and their hip hop style in New York were very different! To me, though, they felt kind of similar inside. When I dance hip hop, I feel that it’s modern and so young – yet, when I dance traditional Papuan style, I feel the hip hop is so old! It’s hard to explain…Coming from Papua, though, it was still an amazing experience. It was a super experience because I was going from the jungle and into the city!”
Unfortunately, as Siompo reveals, his passion for breakdancing had come to a halt in 2000, when after a pretty bad knee injury, the dancer was forced to quit what he loved doing the most. Nevertheless, while his body would no longer allow him to breakdance the way he once used to, it didn’t mean Siompo was going to give up on dance entirely, taking on the role of director and “occasional” performer instead.
“I had to quit breakdancing in 2000 because I got a knee injury,” he confirms. “I had to stop because of that, but some of my friends still kept going with Jakarta Breakin. Last year I got to dance in Korea and I still do get to do a bit of dancing in the park, which is my hangout place with the other dancers. It would be great for us to tour all around the world and in every country.”
For now, We Came From The East is making its appearance as part of the Melbourne Festival and is Siompo’s main priority. Well, that and also expressing his traditional roots at every chance he gets.
“I try to combine my daily life with Indonesian ancient life,” he says. “With the show, I am just trying to combine animal movement, statues and robots. When all three of these are united together, then it will be something unique to see.”
