 Professor
R. M. Soedarsono is a prominent Indonesian dancer as well as a scholar
who opened up a new era of Asian Arts Studies based on western academic
perspectives.
Born in the ancient
city of Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia in 1933, he was trained in
the dance from childhood. As a legitimate inheritor of Yogyakarta-style
dance, he has been actively engaged in performing not only in Indonesia
but also abroad since 1958.
After receiving an
M.A. in Cultural History from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Professor
Soedarsono served as director of the National Dance Academy in Yogyakarta
from 1963 to 1980. During that period, he also undertook various activities
in Europe and the U.S., including, for example, a lecture in Paris in
1967 and the study of modern dance and ballet at the University of Hawaii
with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1969, he was offered
the post of visiting artist by the University of California, Los Angeles,
and wrote the highly-praised dance drama, "Ramayana". In addition,
in 1970, he produced the dance drama "Gadjah Mada" based on
the motif of the ancient kingdom of Java, which was followed by many other
similar dance dramas. Professor Soedarsono's dance dramas were different
from traditional Javanese which use narration and words, and, instead,
represent a new form of music-dance-drama based on the form of the Western
ballet. The introduction of this novel form of Javanese dance has earned
him high praise.
In 1983, his research
was compiled in his doctoral dissertation, "Wayang Wong: The State
Ritual Dance Drama in the Court of Yogyakarta", which was published
in 1984 by the Gadjah Mada University Press. It is the result of thorough
research on Yogyakarta-style dance drama in Central Java, encompassing
the disciplines of history, the arts and literature. Subsequently, this
research made an internationally important academic contribution to Javanese
Arts Studies including dance dramas.
After his teaching
experiences abroad, he assumed various important posts in Indonesia: Chairman,
the Research Project for National Culture; Vice Rector, Indonesian Institute
of the Arts Yogyakarta; Chairman, Consortium for the Arts, Ministry of
Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia; Professor of the History
of Arts and Culture, Gadjah Mada University; and from 1992 to 1997, Rector,
Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta. In addition, he has been
a board member of the Asia Pacific Society for Ethnomusicology since its
foundation in 1993 by music scholars from the countries of this region,
and has participated in international scholarly activities.
Professor Soedarsono
has engaged in various activities ranging from performing, including creation
of dance dramas both at home and abroad, to research and teaching. In
particular, his wide-ranging overseas activities have made important contributions
to international exchange through the arts and culture, and thus, make
him a truly worthy recipient of the Arts and Culture Prize of the Fukuoka
Asian Cultural Prizes. |
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