April 27, 2025 | 11:05 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian choreographer Hartati will once again showcase her work in theater arts at the Malay Festival of Arts 2025, on May 2 and 3, 2025. Her choreography performance titled Needle in a Haystack or Jarum dalam Jerami, which she has been working on since 2022, will be presented at the Esplanade Theater in Singapore.
Previously, Needle in a Haystack had been performed by Hartati at the Alek Mandeh event in Kabupaten Sijunjung, West Sumatra in November 2022. Then, in December 2022, Hartati showcased her work at the Jakarta International Contemporary Dance Festival (JICON) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, in Jakarta.
Hartati's background as a Minangkabau woman is the main idea behind the use of props in this work, living in the environment of paddy fields and rice fields. Needle in a Haystack represents Hartati's memories and the collective memories of the Minangkabau community, who feel joyous during each harvest season.
The joy during the harvest season is what Hartati utilizes; the Minangkabau people will stack hay after the harvest, unaware that there might be a needle in the haystack. Therefore, the great euphoria when celebrating something needs to be accompanied by caution, as there might be a needle that could prick people within the haystack they themselves have stacked.
It is this work that Hartati also uses as a way to honor or as a kind of tribute to her mentor in choreography, Gusmiati Suid (1942-2001). During her time in the Gumarang Sati group, Gusmiati turned out to be a figure who taught Hartati a lot and made this work a response from a disciple to her teacher through her own work. That is the reason why Hartati chose a similar title to her mentor's work, Fire in the Chaff, created in 1997.
The Esplanade Singapore through its official news has stated that Hartati's work this time will urge the audience to understand the complexity of human identity. This complexity includes gender, class, ethnicity, and generational experiential differences. Through the spotlight on this identity, this thought-provoking choreography can show that there are many differences in human identity, but there are still points of connection.
Later, the performance will use stacks of hay and some agricultural tools with reprocessing. The stage will show the audience the many things that humans go through in their lives. The same sentiment is expressed by Keni Soeriaatmadja, the producer of this work, where the bodies of agrarian communities who consistently work hard to sustain their livelihoods are never seen in non-agrarian communities.
Hartati mentions that her work is not just a response to Fire in the Chaff by Gusmiati, her mentor, which portrays the conflict of the New Order. She also wants to show that her current work will present the current conditions, 20 years after the New Order has ended.
"We celebrate what is called democracy, but we often overlook the seemingly small but fundamental things that can be dangerous under our own feet, just like a Needle in a Haystack," said Hartati about her work in a press release on April 25, 2025.
In the performance, Hartati will be accompanied by M. Fitrik, Maria Bernadeta Aprianti, Siti Alisa Anjelira Fariza, Densiel Lebang, Daniel S. Pambudi, Deka A. Saputra, Aditya Warman, Dendy Wardiman, and Salsabilla as dancers. The music for the performance of Needle in a Haystack will be handled by Taufik Adam and Jumaidil Firdaus.
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