Events offer healing and help for tsunami victims

Updated 5:30 PM January 20, 2005

Events offer healing and help for tsunami victims

By Charley Sullivan, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
and Laurel Thomas Gnagey

Organizers of a campus remembrance Jan. 14 and a benefit concert Jan. 26 say they hope the events for those victimized by the tsunami are just the beginning of activities designed to recognize the tragedy, honor those who lost their lives or their loved ones, and begin to engage the community in upcoming relief efforts.

Just after Record press time, students, faculty and staff were expected to gather on the Diag for a candlelight remembrance ceremony, which was to be followed by an event in the Mendelssohn Theater featuring a variety of speakers.

After the formal event, exhibits, educational materials and support opportunities, including information on campus fundraising and relief efforts, were made available to participants.

"The Friday event provided both an opportunity for the community to come together to begin healing, but also achieved a milestone in providing the first public look at some of the student relief efforts," says Dean of Students Susan Eklund. "The collaboration has been extraordinary among student organizations and individuals."

A "Concert to Honor and Aid Victims of the December 26 Tsunami" will be presented 7 p.m. Jan. 26 in Rackham Auditorium. The Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies (CSSEAS), the International Institute, the School of Music and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, with the support of other University programs, are sponsors of the concert that will feature South and Southeast Asian dance and music.

"One month to the day after this tragedy, a distinguished group of Asian artists will come together to mark its effect on our community and our world," says Nancy Florida, chair of LSA Asian Languages & Cultures.

"The principal performers are world-class professional dancers and musicians from Indonesia and India, all visitors in residence at U-M.

"Their performances, born of ancient cultures and shaped in part by millennia of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, monsoons and floods, will serve as a community observance of lives lost and changed," Florida says.

The concert also will offer an opportunity for members of the audience to help with relief efforts through contributions to the relief agency Oxfam-America, which is doing work on the ground in South and Southeast Asia.

The concert headliner will be Didik Nini Thowok, an Indonesian dancer, who, for his weeklong stay on campus Jan. 24-28, has been named a King-Chávez-Parks Visiting Professor by the Office of the Provost.

Didik, a dancer, choreographer and television actor, is a major star in Indonesia. Unusual for traditional Javanese dance, he performs primarily women's roles, often leaving audiences wondering whether they have been watching a man or a woman. He particularly is known for his mastery of a difficult technique called topeng dwi-muka, or "two faces" masked dance.

As part of his visiting professorship, Didik will perform at Burns Park Elementary School, and will be a guest lecturer in classes on campus in both the Residential College and the Program in Theater and Dance.

He will give a master class with the advanced Javanese Dance class students preparing for a March gamelan dance drama performance, and will join University faculty members in a panel discussion on "Gender, Transgendered Performance and Classical Arts in Asia," at noon Jan. 28 in room 1636, School of Social Work building.

Other artists scheduled to participate include:

V.A. Gayathri, a prominent Bharatha Natyam dancer, who currently is in residence at the University Center for World Performance Studies, is a U-M alumna. Bharatha Natyam is an ancient and vibrant form of dance from southern India.

More than two thousand years old, the form features complex and intricate footwork, fluid arm movements, an extensive vocabulary of hand gestures, eye, neck and head movements, and storytelling. Gayathri has her family roots in Tamilnadu, the area of India most devastated by the tsunami.

Pamardi, a master dancer and teacher from Indonesia, and Jun Wakabayashi, a master Butoh dancer from Japan, are artists-in-residence in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Together they are leading a year long Asian Theater Workshop for U-M students, working to generate a new visual/movement vocabulary for Asian theater. The form of dance is highly improvisational, building on the sense of space they feel at the time, with the movement developing from the flow of water within and through their bodies.

The program will be opened by the U-M Gamelan Ensemble, playing "Wilujeng," a traditional Javanese piece that often begins gamelan concerts in Java. Gamelan means small orchestra and normally refers to an ensemble of percussion instruments.

"Wilujeng" translates to slamàt, the Javanese word from the same root as salaam and shalom. "Wilujeng" traditionally is played to bring peace and safety to the artists, the audience and the world.

The gamelan will be led by Matheus Wasi Bantolo, artist-in-residence at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies from Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.

The concert also will include music from South Asia for sitar and tabla, performed by Rajan Sachdeva, director of the Detroit Institute of Indian Music, and principle teacher of Indian classical music for the student group, Saadhanai. Rajan is an accomplished sitarist of both the gayaki (vocal) and tantrakari (instrumental) styles.

The concert is free and open to the public. Contributions in the form of cash or a check will be accepted at the door for Oxfam-America. Suggested contributions are $5 or more for students and $10 or more for others.

Rehearsals for the concert will be open to the public 1-5 p.m. on concert day, and contributions will be accepted at that time, as well.

Sponsors are CSSEAS, the International Institute, School of Music and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Institute for the Humanities, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments and Michigan Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative.

For more information, contact the CSSEAS at (734) 764-0452 or visit http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cseas.

Events offer healing and help for tsunami victims

More Stories