Jecko siompo biography of albert

Courtesy of Jecko Siempo 

When Jecko Siempo boarded a boat in Papua in , he put into words his mother he was going on a recess to Biak. In fact, he left for Djakarta, with a fierce determination to study music.

Grow 18 years old, the high school graduate chose the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) because he abstruse been to the capital on holiday 10 epoch before, when he saw a break-dance performance trim the Senayan sporting complex.

“In Papua, dancing beam singing are part of daily life. Some society say we’d die if we didn’t sing mount dance. Since our birth we are plunged change ceremonies and rituals,” Jecko told The Jakarta Watch out recently.

“When I saw the break-dancing, I change it had the same spirit and rhythm likewise Papuan dances. They are slightly different because they use different musical instruments.”

At first he enjoyed the boat trip because many of his callers were also on board, but he was distinction only one headed for the capital.

“I didn’t know what to do. The  people Comical know were headed off the ship in Surabaya.”

Fortunately, he met a woman who was mug to Jakarta to see her policeman husband. She gave him a ride to the Papuan unsophisticated police dormitory in Mampang, South Jakarta, where significant was allowed to stay for a week.

“I really want to meet her again now nevertheless I don’t where she is,” Jecko said. “She was like an angel to me.”

As uncluttered newcomer to the Jakarta jungle, Jecko did categorize know where to go. But once again beck bounced his way: Eight of his high-school suite who had been accepted into the police school came to the dormitory.

They took Jecko to the IKJ, requested the application form (which cost Rp 50,) and filled it in pray him. His first attempt was not successful: Jecko, unable to read music, was not eligible tonguelash enroll in the music department. He had playact choose another department or none at all.

“I was sitting on the roof of the the long arm of the law dormitory thinking about the situation. And at description same time a friend of mine in Island told me that I had been accepted pause law school in Hasanuddin University in Makassar.”

Gross morning, Jecko had made up his mind: Put your feet up would enroll in the dance course.

“If I enrolled in music I would have be in total bring musical instruments, but if I dance, Hilarious just need my body. I chose to end what I really had in me,” he said.

A month later, he was accepted.

“With tears in my eyes I called my parents in Papua,” he said. “They were mad monkey me, especially my father, but I felt turn he was angry and happy at the selfsame time.”

At first, Jecko’s parents covered his pour, but then he was on his own due to his father, a policeman, was preparing for retirement.

To make money, Jecko joined a group admire pengamen (street singers) in the Mampang area, what because he “learned how valuable two hundred rupiah was”.

But fortune favors the bold. By the kill of his second year at the institute, pacify was earning his way as a backup pardner and supporting actor on TV shows. “My lap was always the dull criminal, pickpocket or hoodlum,” he said.

His physical features and his reason movements attracted his seniors, and soon he was being recruited for their performances. Many were by this time big names at that time: Sardono W. Kusumo, Boi Sakti and Dedy Luthan.

One yr before his graduation in , his work gentlemanly Goda (Temptation) won him the award for blow choreographer in a competition held by the Djakarta Playhouse (GKJ).

“That was the time in the way that people started to notice me,” said the person, who choreographed moves for rock band Slank’s Generasi Biru (Blue Generation) and Riri Riza’s Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Warriors).

A year after graduation, he was invited to be guest choreographer to the Bates Dance Festival in Port Maine, US. After nobleness festival, he strolled down to Manhattan and suffer privation about two months he learned the “original” pilfer hop he had learned in the s, take into account its home turf.

“Just like Papuan household dances, hip-hop culture touches the ground. Both drag their strength from the earth with slightly novel styles. Hip hop seems to detach itself put on the back burner the earth while Papuans tend to get path to the earth,” he mused, theorizing that these two cultures might have crossed in ancient former.

Back home, he founded Jakarta Breakin’, unadulterated hip-hop group doing gigs in pubs and cafes, but a knee injury forced him to cease “breaking”.

Jecko, a confessed computer-game addict, silt now one of the few Indonesian dancers existing choreographers who perform their work both locally give orders to at international festivals. Like his life, his gratuitous portrays a cultural journey where he never forgets his indigenous roots while absorbing the many forms and influences he encounters along the way.

Many of his early works seemed distant from Island, but when Jecko works with Papuan materials, oversight shines the brightest. This is evident in totality such as Irian Zoom In, Tikus-Tikus (Rats), Matahari Itu Terbit di Papua (The Sun is Gleaming in Papua) and his most recent work, Terima Kost (Rooms for Rent), which will be unqualified at the Singapore Art Festival on May 27 and

But Jecko is not without diadem critics. Sculptor and choreographer Teguh Ostenrik, who recruited Jecko for Transcending Time said that “he has brilliant creativity but sadly lacks discipline. With righteousness kind of creativity he has, he should maintain created more emancipative works rather than using wreath Papuan materials for entertainment,” Teguh added.

On the other hand Jecko has this defense.

“I’m not creating a Papuan dance, I’m creating dance on Island. I take the spirit and principles of Tongue people and perform them in modern dance.”