Room Exit TERIMA KOS 2007
““,…place for thinking, place for playing when bored, place for take a pray when sorrowful, place for washing face when this mind had confused, and just one place that I loved, for I pay every month”
Profile
Born in 1975 in Jayapura, Papua, Jakarta-based dancer-choreographer Jeck Kurniawan Siompo Pui – better known as Jecko Siompo – is a rising star and leading figure in Indonesia’s contemporary dance.
As with the bulk of Indonesian contemporary dance for the past few decades, the rich local dance traditions of his tribal culture is the strongest influence and the main fuel of Siompo’s unique multicultural dance vocabulary. Dancing was a constant feature throughout his childhood and adolescent life. Growing up, he lived in various areas in Papua (Irian Jaya): the hinterland Wamena, the coastal Fak-fak (his hometown), and the provincial capital Jayapura, and was exposed to both hinterland or mountainous (pedalaman) and coastal (pesisir) dance forms.
Mastering Javanese, Sumatran and Minang ethnic dance and other contemporary forms as a student at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts, Siompo later immersed himself in ballet and street dance. The further he was away from Papua however, the more he understood its traditions, and Siompo started exploring his own dance culture. In 1999, he picked up hip-hop from b-boys in New York while on an invite to the Bates Dance Festival in Portland (USA), and has incorporated street dance into his vocabulary since. Together with his deep roots in Papuan dance culture, Siompo brings his firm connection with Jakarta's hip-hop subculture into his choreography and dance films.
As a dancer, he has participated in productions by both well-known Indonesian artists Sardono W. Kusumo and Boi G. Sakti and international choreographers such as Peter Chin (Canada) locally and abroad. His choreographic works include Goda (1997), Ini Budi (1997), Irian Zoom In (1998), Asmat Dani (1999), Obahorok, Buto Huruf (2000), Unanuk (2001), Tikus-Tikus (2003), Di Kamar Kost Aku Mengganti Baju (2004), In Front Of Papua (2005) and Terima Kos (2007).
In 2002, he was awarded a scholarship by the Goethe-Institute to study dance theatre in Germany. He has participated in international dance forums and arts festivals both within Indonesia and across Asia, Europe and the US, including Live Arts Bangkok (2007), the Asia Contemporary Dance Festival in Osaka (2007, 2008), the Asian Dance Conference in Tokyo (2007), and the Hong Kong Arts Festival (2009). He is also a jury member of the popular Indonesian TV programme Let’s Dance.
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