Hi, welcome back with a very exotic and imaginative #monomad photo parade. I am still showing black and white photos from the ethnographic art stage of Malikussaleh University students, Aceh, Indonesia.
This time, I am showing a creative dance performed by several female dancers. The creative dance is entitled Keuneunong Blang which adopts the Acehnese calendar system in regulating the time to go down to the rice fields.
Each movement symbolizes the keuneunong system starting from plowing the rice fields using a calendar, sowing seeds, pulling out seeds when the time comes, planting rice, fertilizing, cleaning weeds (some areas in Aceh call it meumpoe), until it is time to harvest.
Farmers are still busy in the fields during the harvest season. The harvested rice stalks are stacked into a barn and guarded while waiting for the time to be threshed from the stalks or the Acehnese call it ceumeulho.
Overnight guarding rice or dom pade is conveyed by dancers by raising the atmosphere of the past that is natural and traditional without forgetting the potential for the entry of modernity.
Dom pade is performed by dancers with lighting from oil lamps or panyoet ceulot which are one of the properties on stage, although the function of providing light can be replaced by a flashlight to be safer.
The Keuneunong Blang dance movement shows a calendar system in cultivating land by combining a number of scientific knowledge that continues to develop. This movement reintroduces a traditional system that intersects with global values.
There are challenges in photographing dancers' performances on stage, especially in the #monomad frame, black and white. First, the problem of dancers' movements which are often surprising.
A photographer who does not understand the dance movements will lose momentum to get captivating movements. That is beyond prediction, especially for creative dances that have never been performed before and we have very few references about the dance.
The issue of lighting is also another challenge. The dance was performed in the afternoon when the sun shone on the back of the stage. The strong sunlight in Indonesia and the thin screen behind the stage, made the sunlight abundant and created little backlight.
Finally, the dancers sometimes wear colorful clothes, as do their properties. The beauty of color clearly cannot be enjoyed in a parade of black and white photos. But that's where the beauty of #monomad photos lies.
Maybe you agree with me. Thank you for your support.[]
