Kelapa Gading Boulevard is set to be artistic director Rama Soeprapto’s largest and most ambitious stage yet for the Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival.
Words: Willy Wilson Photos: Meutia Ananda
Jakartans rarely get to enjoy outdoor events that combine fashion, food and performing arts. But once a year people in the capital gather in the upscale suburb of Kelapa Gading for the Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival (JFFF), a lifestyle celebration organized by PT Summarecon Agung Tbk and the Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency.
There are three main events during JFFF, now in its 11th edition: Gading Nite Carnival, the Fashion Extravaganza and Food Festival. The carnival traditionally serves as the opening act for the three-week event, showcasing the best of both fashion and food that Jakarta and Indonesia have to offer. This year’s carnival, to be held from May 9-June 1, promises more than just a colorful parade and fireworks.
“This year’s carnival is going to be different. We will come up with an iconic character, whose life story unfolds during the carnival,” says director of Coconut Mind creative agency Rama Soeprapto, who has been appointed artistic director.
It is Rama’s first year directing the carnival, and he is understandably ecstatic. By his own admission, this is the largest scale production he has undertaken.
“I’m incorporating the use of multimedia technology, such as projected GPS maps, as well as contemporary theatre setting to tell the story of the icon that we created for JFFF,” he says.
What iconic character?
“Mat Gading,” says Rama excitedly. “A wonder boy born out of the flame at the peak of Jakarta’s National Monument. He is curious, smart and wants to make a difference. He embodies culture, arts and history.
“Supported by a group of talented young costume designers from different regions in Indonesia, the carnival will have a theatrical quality to it as Mat Gading goes from Jakarta to West Java, Central Java and Jember, East Java. We will incorporate traditional dances from each place – Yapong and Sisingaan, among others – to create a spectacular performance.”
A nod to tradition is fine and dandy, but Rama also promises the much needed pop culture touch every now and then – expect a medley of Madonna and Michael Jackson numbers, as well as a group of male cheerleaders dancing to Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive during the closing act.
“It is entertainment after all,” he says, bursting into laughter.
Rama, the 48-year-old son of singer Kanjeng Raden Ayu Soemarini Soerjosoemarno, better known as Marini, and racer Tinton Soeprapto, believes that giving a face to an event is crucial. Walt Disney is nothing without Mickey Mouse, he argues.
The famous Kelapa Gading Boulevard will close for the carnival, to be held on May 15. For maximum impact, Rama says that the performance will be visually relayed throughout the venue, and out of towners will also be able to stream it online.
It all may sound a bit ostentatious in its planning, but Rama understands intuitively the potential of Indonesian arts to reach their audience on a larger-than-life scale. He explains the grand concept animatedly – hands in the air, eyes wide open – and the listener can’t help but be drawn to his seemingly boundless energy, focus and magnetism.
From Surakarta to St. Petersburg
His maverick vision of performing arts stem from his love for culture. He trained in business and marketing, yet his greatest impact has come from his stunning renderings of theatrical performances that take inspiration from local heritage. Among the noteworthy performances he directed are last year’s Prahara Badai Cinta Kasih, Timun Mas and Padusi.
The latter is particularly memorable for Rama. A compelling story about an urban woman striving to understand her cultural roots from West Sumatra while upholding the freedom and independence gained from modern living, Padusi captures the complexity of living in two different worlds – something that Rama knows all too well.
From a long artistic, aristocratic, military and entreprenurial lineage, Rama has spent his life shifting between polar opposites of cultures, from East and West to contemporary society’s dynamism contrasted with the old world Javanese dynastic traditions. He has strived to find a happy medium between them all.
His famous parents had a short-lived marriage, and have since remarried several times, gifting Rama an army of half and step siblings who reported exploits fill the tabloid pages every now and then.
“My parents got divorced when I was young. I spent my childhood with my maternal grandparents,” Rama recounts.
He credits his maternal grandfather, major general Soetarjo Soerjosoemarno, as his biggest artistic influence. A nephew of Mangkunegara VII, who ruled part of Surakarta from 1944–1987, young Soerjosoemarno was a skilled Javanese dancer. His life took a dramatic turn when his uncle sent him to Amsterdam to perform for Queen Juliana’s birthday celebration.
“He decided to stay there for a while. And through his friend Soemitro Djojohadikusumo (father of politican Prabowo Subianto), who had been a student in the Netherlands, he met my grandmother – a Dutch woman of Jewish origin,” Rama shares.
It was during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and Dolly Zegerius was living in a detention camp. Rama beams with pride as he tells the romantic story of love conquering all: “My grandfather would dress up in an elaborate Gatot Kaca costume and hide bread underneath his headgear to visit my grandmother. He would manage to get past the security system. But as his headgear contained more and more bread, and consequently grew bigger, it was only a matter of time before the Nazis found out.”
They eventually married, and settled in Indonesia. Rama grew close to them, especially when his mother was at the peak of her career as a singer hired by the most fabulous nightclubs in Singapore and Tokyo. Rama recalls watching from behind the curtain as his mother shared the stage with the likes of Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey.
“From an early age, I had absorbed every bit of the magic that comes with stage performances,” says Rama, who became a member of Guruh Soekarnoputra’s Swara Mahardika dance troupe at the tender age of 12.
He continued his musical training here well until he finished high school. Soon America came calling, and he enrolled himself in Community College of Baltimore (now the Baltimore City Community College) in 1985.
“I went to the US to study business, but I kept thinking about joining the dancing class. Fortunately, students were allowed to take an art class as elective, and I naturally took jazz dance!” he reminisces.
He proved to be a natural, and even taught himself ballet, which landed him in an student exchange program at prestigious Leningrad State Conservatory (now Saint Petersburg Conservatory).
“We even had the chance to visit Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, which isn’t open to the public. We performed tap and jazz dance there, and NBC had a special report on our visit titled Raising the Iron Curtain. It was the Gorbachev era,” he recalls, beaming with pride.
Taking Center Stage
Rama eventually quit dancing. He earned his marketing degree at Towson State University, also in the Baltimore area, and relocated to Jakarta. He worked at a design consultancy company for a year, but his heart wasn’t in the job.
“It was the time when the television industry was blooming in Indonesia. I wanted to be part of it, so I went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and enrolled myself in a film and video production course,” he says.
He returned home with the idea to work in television when suddenly a distant cousin – acclaimed film director Nia Dinata – suggested that they open a production house. In 1993, Iguana Productions emerged as the leading production house, churning out programs for MTV and cool music videos for top rock bands like Dewa 19. But the 1997 recession killed the business.
“Nia went to film, and I went to marketing. I learned about event organizing and multimedia equipment. I then realized that I needed to be working around in the creative environment – by which I mean stage – again,” he shares.
Opportunities came knocking again when cloth designer Josephine Komara, better known as Obin, requested that he direct her BIN House fashion show. Nope, not your regular models stomping the runway , but a colossal presentation titled Matahati (conscience) that conveys cultural messages. Some 200 pieces were showcased in a theatrical fashion. The phenomenal success of the show prompted him to take yet another life-altering decision at the beginning of the 21st century.
“I went to (American avant-garde director and designer) Robert Wilson and said I want to be his assistant, even if that meant I had to make coffee and sweep the floor. I had heard that Robert was producing I La Galigo and I wanted to be part of it, despite having no background in theater,” he shares.
Based on an epic poem believed to date back to the 14th century, “La Galigo” evolved and proliferated through the oral traditions in South Sulawesi’s Bugis society. A complete manuscript doesn’t exist, but the preserved parts of the poem amount to 6,000 pages or 300,000 lines of text, making it one of the largest known works of literature.
Wilson took a fraction of the literature as inspiration for his stage work, which involved 53 Indonesian musicians and dancers and a transvestite Buginese shaman (Bugis society acknowledges five genders, including transvestites).
“It was an amazing experience. Our culture is so rich, and in many ways I felt envious that a foreign director got to introduce what rightfully is ours to the world. This is why I wanted to be involved so badly in the production,” he says.
He embarked on an exciting 6-year journey that took him to 11 cities around the world with the group, and by the time he returned home, he knew exactly where he belonged: the stage.
On May 15, his biggest stage yet awaits in Kelapa Gading. Its contribution to JFFF promises to be a spectacular show to behold.