In April 2016, CIOFF Indonesia and Galeri Indonesia Kaya organized Pakarena Fan Dance Workshop. This workshop is one of the events of the Creative Space organized by Galeri Indonesia Kaya. Pakarena fan dance is a dance that originated from Gowa, South Sulawesi. This dance reflects gentleness, politeness, loyalty and obedience and the respect of women of Gowa to the men. Each movement has its own meaning, such as the beginning and the ending seating position symbolize a sign of respect and courtesy of the dancers, the turning movement symbolize human life cycle that will always turning, and the up and down movement symbolizes human life that is sometimes up and down. Every movement patterns remind people of the importance of patience and human consciousness in the face of life.

Pakarena Fan Dance Workshop were divided into 2 sessions, each session lasts for 2 hours. First session runs from 4:00 p.m. to 18:00 pm and the second session runs from 19:00 to 21:00 o'clock. At the end of the workshop, the participants of the session 1 and session 2 are combined to perform together at the opening of the event organized by Galeri Indonesia Kaya.

As in the previous workshop, participants will be taught from the basic movements of Pakarena Fan Dance, so the participants who had never danced or never learned Pakarena Fan Dance before, didn’t have to worry. Participants will be taught how to open their eyes and lifted thier feet. The dancers are not permitted to open the eyes too wide and lift the foot too high. This is because modesty is the main aspect of the dance.

At the beginning of the workshop the number of participants were eight people, but because they’re ranging from students to housewives, the practice became less effective. Over the exercises, the number of participants were reduced to only four people who join the performance on the last day of the workshop. The remaining four participants had a great passion and intention to practice and memorize the movements taught by coaches from CIOFF Indonesia. The performance of the four workshop participants runs smoothly and they were able to dance very well. All thank to the passion, perseverance, and discipline of the participants and the patient and skill of the trainers in teaching the dance.

This activity is covered by the Galeri Indonesia Kaya. Galeri Indonesia Kaya covered the tutorials and history of Pakarena Fan Dance and the behind the scenes of this workshop. This workshop also covered by CNN Indonesia and Berita Satu TV News Channel.

Written by : Alvita Rassya Tritikaningtyas

Edited and published by : Galih Satria & Ghina Aulia Megaputri