Traditional Dance Workshop - Serampang 12 from Sumatera

On 22-26 March 2016, CIOFF Indonesia in collaboration with Galeri Indonesia Kaya held the Creative Space: Serampang 12 Dance Workshop at Galeri Indonesia Kaya, Grand Indonesia. This Deli originated dance is a colossal dance that tells a story of young people who are looking for a soul mate. Serampang 12 Dance were originally named Sari Island dance, and it has its own distinctive character than any other indigenous dance in the Indonesian archipelago. Serampang 12 Dance is accompanied by traditional music, and it has a continuous 12 dance movements. The movements construct the whole story of a bachelor meets the girl, thier love stories and their marriage.

At this workshop, participants not only taught about the Serampang 12 dancing movement but also about the history of the dance. The workshop participants were presented with an introduction of CIOFF Indonesia and they were also trained by its coaches. They are trained on basic dance knowledge before going to the core of the dance movements, such as the body stance of Serampang 12 dance, basic movements and tricks of various movements in the dance.

Although not all participants had basic dance knowledge, the President and the coaches CIOFF Indonesia continues to motivate and taught the participants step by step. With only 5 days of training, the participants were able to perform an amazing performance. Sounds of applause filled the auditorium of Galeri Indonesia Kaya after the participant finished Serampang 12 dance performance.

Galeri Indonesia Kaya also covered this workshop. They interviewed the president of CIOFF Indonesia, Said Rachmat and record the entirety of workshop. For those who have not had the opportunity to attend the Serampang 12 dance workshop, Galeri Indonesia Kaya also made the video tutorial on how to learn Serampang 12 dance, performed by the President CIOFF Indonesia, Said Rachmat and General Secretary of CIOFF Indonesia, Ayu Wiranti.

Click the links below to watch the coverage of Serampang 12 dance and the interview of Said Rachmat, President of CIOFF Indonesia

Dancing With 96.7 HitzFm

On March 8th 2016, it was the International Women's Day. CIOFF® Indonesia was asked and invited to be guest stars for a Radio show called "Sirkus Pagi" with their hosts Vincent, Aldy and Dery. Raras, Anin, Aliya, Gaya and Olin were the 5 representative dancers for CIOFF® Indonesia to spend the day with Aldy and Dery. They even have a special surprise with Aldy and Dery for all the Hitz fans. They shared their experiences and also they describe to Hitz what is CIOFF® Indonesia. With their talk, Aldy and Dery found interest in what is "Misi Budaya" and also about Indonesian Culture.

"Honestly, at first i didn't understand what is CIOFF®. All I know is that CIOFF® is an organization about dance, the many types of Traditional Indonesian Dance and CIOFF® brings a well known name for Indonesia Internationally. But after chatting with Raras, Anin, Aliya, Gaya and Olin i now know what CIOFF® is all about." Says Dery.

With this Interview with CIOFF® Indonesia, HitzFm and also the listeners now know more about CIOFF® Indonesia. In Dery's opinion, "Clearly it is very positive. Just imagine that citizens all around the world only know about Modern Dance. Whereas dances from Indonesia are also as cool as them. With the help of CIOFF®, Indonesia should be proud and thankful that if not CIOFF®, If not us, then who will save Indonesian cultures" 

According to Dery, the impact of CIOFF® Indonesia for teenagers these days are astonishing. If not because of CIOFF® our next generation will only know about Hip hop and modern dance, It must be very dissapointing for us that they will know about western culture more than our own. According to Dery, we shouldn't be ashamed and scared to be call "unmodern" because "Tari" = "Dance". We can tell our future generation about Jaipong Dance and Tor-Tor Dance. It's not less cool right? After talking with the dancers of CIOFF® Indonesia, in Dery's opinion Traditional dancers have a stereotype as "stiff" or "stern" but surprisingly for CIOFF® Indonesia dancers, they are the total opposite from it. "They are a fun bunch of girls, always laughing, they have a sense of humor, and they respond to the jokes we told." Says Dery.

With this conversation, Dery could only say that " from CIOFF®'s intention is a noble motive, introducing our nation's custom and delivered with a 100% total preperation. In other words, don't get bored in persuading our younger generation to join together with CIOFF®. We are actually waiting for your movement:"

So that is our fun chat with HitzFm. Let's all start from now showing our love for Indonesian culture. Follow @cioff_indonesia and start #CintaIndonesia also don't forget to put hashtag #cioff_indonesia. Be proud of indonesian culture, if it's not us then who else,right? From now on let's show our love for indonesian culture. Because a tweet, a hastag, and a photo can effect indonesia's next generation.

Written by Poeti Anindya (Anin)
Edited and published by Gayatri Larasati & Ghina Aulia Megaputri