Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the UGM Rampoe Team succeeded in making dance achievements at the international level. Rampoe UGM, an Acehnese dance community from Universitas Gadjah Mada, won the 1st Winner & Gold Diploma and The Best Dynamics on The Stage in the International Online Dance Competition.
The competition, which was held online by the Folklore Festival Association from 1 September to 30 October 2020, was attended by 50 teams from 25 countries. Several countries that enlivened this competition include Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, Turkey, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, and Russia.
The Folklore Festival Association, which held the competition, is an international dance association based in Macedonia and Serbia. The association, which has been established since 2003, has held various festivals in various countries, such as Spain, Serbia, Greece, England, Russia, Germany, and many other countries.
The vice-chairman of Rampoe UGM, Ken Istifarni, said that Rampoe UGM presented the Ratoeh Pukat Dance in this competition. Ratoeh Pukat Dance is a combination of Ratoeh Jaroe Dance and Pukat Dance.
Ratoeh Jaroe dance is a dance describing the life of the Acehnese people who uphold solidarity. While the Pukat Dance is a dance that describes the life of fishers when catching fish in the sea, representing the people of coastal Aceh who work as fishermen.
“Of course we are happy with this achievement, but for sure Rampoe UGM continues to strive to spread Indonesian culture, especially Acehnese culture, both at the national and international level,” she said at UGM Campus on Friday (11/13).
She explained that the International online dance competition was the first online dance competition held by the Folklore Festival Association. It was due to the current pandemic conditions faced by the world. If there is no pandemic, the Folklore Festival Association regularly holds competitions or festivals in several countries, such as Russia, Spain, Italy, and others.
“Rampoe UGM regularly participates in various competitions or festivals both domestically and abroad, whether during a pandemic or not,” said Ken Istifarni, a 2017 student at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM.
Given the pandemic situation, Ken admitted that Rampoe UGM’s preparation for the competition was relatively short. The UGM Rampoe team only found out information about this competition two days before the closing of registration.
“Rampoe rushed to hold an online meeting and decided to register. And we decided that the dance to be displayed was Ratoeh Pukat, a combination of Ratoeh Jaroe and Ratoeh Pukat dances involving 16 dancers and four musicians,” she explained.
Furthermore, Ken explained that because the organizing committee allowed participants to use videos produced in the last 5 years, the UGM Rampoe Team finally only chose videos from several performance documentations that had been done. Even so, Rampoe still often makes new dance videos for other dance competitions.
“This year, Rampoe is quite active in participating in other virtual competitions. The total preparation for this competition lasted for two days. There are no rehearsals because we only take videos from previous years,” said Ken.
According to Ken Istifarni, the offline competition made the UGM Rampoe Team more familiar and closer to the organizing committee because of the intensity of communication. This closeness makes Rampoe UGM have new relationships and the opportunity to preserve and introduce Indonesian culture to the world stage.
“Our habit is always in a hurry to follow each registration process. But we make it a challenge that can make us more excited. For the competition this time, the strong competitor is Russia. They performed a traditional ballet dance with choreography called Zadumka,” she added.
