Maestro Mask Dancer Indramayu: Rasinah
If only Jinggan Anom and Kelana Gandrung could talk — the two wooden masks might tell the sad story of how close they almost came to being separated from their longtime owner, Rasinah, the only surviving Indramayu mask dancer maestro. After many years accompanying their master in preserving the traditional dance of West Java’s north coastal region, the two masks were recently almost sold to the highest bidder to raise money to pay for their sick master’s hospital bills.
Until fate took a positive turn as Yuli Tri Suwarni explains.
Mimi, as Rasinah is fondly known, is renowned for her valor and grace, which often saw the audience mistake her for an athletic male instead of a granny with a wrinkled face behind the mask.
Mimi has been undergoing treatment and physiotherapy at Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung, West Java, for a stroke that paralyzed the left side of her body.
For the past two years, her health condition has taken away her pleasure to dance.
But the maestro, whose identity card says she was born on Feb. 20, 1930 (even though she claims she is actually more than 80 years old), was all smiles when journalists came to pay her a visit at the hospital.
Mimi’s third granddaughter, 22-year-old Aerli Rasinah, who was accompanying her at the hospital, recalled that her grandmother had a mild stroke in July 2005 after returning from a dance tour that took her to several cities in England.
“At that time, we rushed her to a nearby hospital in Indramayu where she was treated for 10 days. But Mimi wanted to go home, as she was scared of needles. So, we took her home even though she wasn’t fully recovered,” Aerli said.
Learning dance and gamelan from her father, Lastra, at the age of seven, Mimi began her career as a mask dancer when she was 10. At this tender age, she was already skilled in playing gamelan and performing eight of Indramayu’s mask dances.
The mask dances of Indramayu are said to have been created by Sunan Kalijaga, one of the propagators of Islam in Java. The mask dances are believed to have religious value and even magical power that is capable of bringing luck and other benefits.
The performing art that Mimi inherited was once forgotten by the public and Mimi even stopped dancing for more than 20 years due to a lack of public interest in the art form.
But some fellow artists persuaded her to revive it in 1994 — though toothless and with the loss of sight in one of her eyes.
Despite her illness, the spirit to dance has never left her fragile body. As she lay sick in her home in Pekandangan village,
Indramayu regency, for nearly two years, her hands continued to repeat dance movements and she still taught dance and gamelan to some 200 children in her neighborhood.
Children learned to dance in her dance workshop — the Mimi Rasinah Dance Workshop — which generated the only income for the singer, who has some 10 masks in her precious collection.
The last time Mimi danced in Bandung was when she entertained her audience with the kupu tarung (or “butterfly duel”) dance, at the Dago Tea House back in June 2005.
On that occasion, she performed alongside another mask dance maestro, Sudjana Arja, from Cirebon in West Java.
A week after the dance performance, Sudjana had a stroke. He briefly recovered but did not survive a second stroke which struck in November 2005 and he died at the age of 78.
When Sudjana died, Mimi felt as though she had lost her best friend. But the tragedy also saw her regain the spirit to recover.
However, in December 2006, Mimi had a serious fall in her bathroom and has been bed bedridden ever since.
“Mimi remains in her bed as she watches over her students dancing or playing the gamelan orchestra,” Aerly said.
She said Mimi was working hard to pass her skills on to others, to help preserve the traditional art form.
Her students, mostly children of fishermen and farmers in the neighborhood, pay Rp 5,000 each per week to learn from her. The money is used to cover her medical costs.
Many people care about Mimi and monitor her condition, including Bandung artist Sonny Soeng who tried to get her to try physiotherapy at a clinic last year.
“But Mimi said she was unhappy and asked to be taken home,” Aerly said.
Mimi’s only living daughter, 43-year-old Wacih, took care of her mother at home with medicine purchased as instructed by a doctor. The dancer’s three other children have passed away.
Unfortunately, home care did not last long.
With floods affecting Indramayu over the past two months, many farmers and fishermen lost work and therefore an income, forcing their children to temporarily forgo their dance lessons with Mimi.
“There used to be some 200 students a month but these days, only between four and 10 … the money is not sufficient to buy her medicine,” said Aerly, who studies dance at Bandung’s Indonesia Arts Institute.
Mimi has a shining reputation and has received many awards, including the 2005 Woman of The Year award from ANTV television station and another award from the tourism and culture minister in 2002.
Yet, awards do not mean much in the face of adversity. Experiencing financial difficulty, Mimi took the initiative to sell her precious masks; something she has never had the heart to do before.
Even through her illness, Mimi “bathes” Samba Merah, a mask in her collection which is more than 100 years old. Every Thursday night, the mask is given special treatment, otherwise it will get “angry” and move of its own accord inside its closet, Mimi says.
When Mimi finally decided to sell her antique masks, including Jinggan Anom and Kelana Gandrung, she contacted a rich man from Jakarta and agreed to sell the masks for at least Rp 250,000 each. Mimi then sent Aerly’s husband, Ade Jayani, to meet the man on Feb. 17.
With Rp 10,000 in his hand, Jayani went to nearby Cirebon city to meet the rich man at an agreed location but he did not show up. He had canceled his trip to take care of other business, leaving Jayani disappointed and upset.
“I didn’t know what to tell Mimi. I didn’t want to go home empty handed,” he said.
Jayani then went to meet a journalist that once wrote a story about Mimi, wishing to sell the six masks he was carrying with him.
Every mask had been used by Mimi, who usually works four masks into her dance performance.
“I did not get the money either. I was so sad,” Jayani said.
But media reports of her plans to sell the masks turned the dancer’s fate around.
Donations soon came flooding in, including from high-ranking officials, politicians and even candidates running for the upcoming West Java governor election, raising some Rp 30 million in a short amount of time.
“Mimi really wants to get better and dance again like she used to … she’s not happy unless she has an audience watching her dance,” Aerly said.
posted by khaleed at 11:47 AM
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