Monday, May 31, 2010

Videos from Zapin d'Muara!

I'll be uploading about all this on the Singapore Arts Festival Blog soon, but I decided to splash it all on my personal blog first.

Basically, Sunday I went to cover Zapin d'Muara, an event at the Malay Heritage Centre centred on zapin. Zapin's a form of Malay dance and music drawn from Middle Eastern culture. It's the most fast-paced of the five varieties of Malay dance.



These two guys are Syarhrial and Surya Darma (left and right). They're craftsmen and musicians from Indonesia, who whittle gambus (string instrument shown) and marwas (drum) out of jackfruit wood and goatskin. Here they're doing an impromptu performance of "Zapin Menjelang Magrib", which Surya wrote himself - singing starts around 0:35.



This is my attempt to learn the dance. (Very awkward.)



Here's a bit of a silat demonstration.

Will also upload some performance art later. Cya!

UPDATE:



I think it's performance art... why else would anyone be mopping a fountain?

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