In January 2020, I participated in Cinemovement Dance Laboratory 6 in Solo, Indonesia. The week-long programme was an intense yet rewarding creative experiences.

Organised by dance artist Elysa Wendi and film producer Jeremy Chua, the laboratory brought together filmmakers, choreographers and dancers from around Asia. It served as a nurturing environment for creating new dance short films.

In the first few days, we explored the city of Surakarta (official name of Solo) to get inspirations for our short films.

Hadiningrat Palace in Solo, Indonesia

Bengawan Solo (Solo River) in Surakarta, Indonesia

We also got to know other participants through orientation exercises. This was important because filmmakers and dancers tend to have different modes of expressions. For instance, I myself was (and still am) bad with my body movement and flexibility! 

In one of the exercises, I was paired with Singaporean dancer Adele Lim. Subsequently, we were tasked to create a one-minute film based on a random story created by us.

I wasn’t familiar with dance language, and Adele wasn’t either with film language. Both of us asked each other a lot of questions. We ended up experimenting with different movement and filming techniques. Along the way, we also made a lot of mistakes and tried silly ideas.

Olivia Griselda and performer Anang Setiawan during "Rite of Passage" shoot

In developing my dance short film “Rite of Passage” to shoot in the Laboratory, I worked closely with Indonesian performer Anang Setiawan and Singaporean dancer Jocelyn Chng. One challenge of the film was the entire movement in the short film was an improvisation. As such, our rehearsals were focused in determining the tone, rhythm and movement language for the final film.

Furthermore, the rehearsals gave opportunities to do test shoots and get feedback from others, which were helpful in shaping the final film.

We shot in the green space inside Melati’s Studio Plesungan. During the shoot day, it rained so much that we had to cut short our shoot to four hours.

Trees in Studio Plesungan, Solo

Throughout the programme, I learnt new ways of exploring and communicating with movement from artist Melati Suryodarmo, who was the host of our programme, as well from other dancers and choreographers. 

The laboratory also encouraged us to help out each other’s project – I edited Jocelyn’s dance film and helped in translating a Bahasa Indonesia interview on Bengawan Solo (Solo River) for another film.

Jocelyn Chng's dance film shoot in Cinemovement Lab 6 in Solo, Indonesia

On the last day of the programme, we had a work-in-progress screening which was attended by local artists and students. It was inspiring to see not only the works of other participants but also the warm reception from the audience.

Work-in-progress screening in Studio Plesungan in Solo, Indonesia.

Besides giving me lifelong friends and collaborators from different countries, the laboratory had deepened my respect towards dance as an art form. I can’t wait to make more dance short films in the future!

“Rite of Passage” is now finished and being entered into film festivals. Subscribe to the newsletter for the latest news on its release!