Tubuh Ketiga: Pada Perayaan yang Berada di Antara (Third Body: On Embracing The In-Between) is dance-theatre, a theatrical-essays about ‘in between’ culture in Indonesia. About ‘third reality’ and this rhizomatic world of us. This performance is a kind of theatrical essay on the art form of Tarling-Dangdut and Indramayu. It is about the “in-between” culture and creative standpoint that relaxedly embraces the cultural crossroads between that from outside and the one exists in the background.

As an art form which has developed in the north coast region of Java, Tarling-Dangdut moves between agrarian and industrial cultures, between rural and urban, between traditional and modern. Tarling-Dangdut is also problematic. It is considered to be neither traditional art nor an art which is modern. But in the midst of its problematic position it continues to grow as an icon of the city and area of Indramayu.

As a city Indramayu has grown up between cultural centers which have also influenced it: Central Java (Solo and Yogyakarta), West Java (Bandung) and Jakarta, the center of modern Indonesia. It can be read as a village and at the same time as a city growing in the “third space”. That is as a cultural entity which has not developed from only one definition or identity but composed of the meeting and mixing of different cultures. Because of that, it can only be understood through various approaches and perspectives.

Inevitably, this performance turns into a reflection of this question: What can we do (we create) with all the tradition and culture which shape us? And with the tradition and culture coming from outside and lay siege on us? Because the world increasingly, inevitably, sees everything connect to each other. Increasingly rhizomatic.

Meanwhile, fundamentalism and identity essentialism, the kind of common responses to this networked world, is a negative and counterproductive reaction to our diverse realities, which is Indonesia, because they threaten diversity and provoke violence.

Tubuh Ketiga: Pada Perayaan yang Berada di Antara (Third Body: On Embracing The In-Between) was conceived and directed by Yudi Ahmad Tajudin in collaboration with Andy Seno Aji, Clink Sugiarto, Gunawan Maryanto, Hanny Herlina, Jompet Kuswidananto, Sri Qadariatin, Theodorus Christanto, Wangi Indriya, Yennu Ariendra

Performed in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Oktober, 2010

Tubuh Ketiga: Pada Perayaan yang Berada di Antara (Third Body: On Embracing The In-Between) © Teater Garasi 2010