Postcolonial Spirits

The Singaporese artist Choy Ka Fai is doing an extensive research into shamanistic dance culture in Asia. For Postcolonial Spirits he has immersed himself in the Indonesian dance ritual Dolalak. It is a dance that has adapted time and again to popular culture. In the 1930s, for instance, the traditional Javanese dance was mixed with movements made by Dutch colonial soldiers as they partied, and with sung Islamic poetry. Today, Dolalak is popular among young female influencers who dance it on TikTok to the tunes of the Indonesian pop genre dangdut.

Inspired by the ever-evolving Dolalak, Choy Ka Fai scrutinizes cultural and historic ritual through the lens of contemporary technology. On stage in Utrecht is dancer Vincent Riebeek who has a live link to Dolalak dancer Andri Kurniawan in Surakarta. Collaborating in the virtual realm, they attempt to create a dance together for our post-corona world. A surprising dance performance across time and space.

“This work is part of a larger project by Choy Ka Fai, called Cosmic Wonders – a magnificent work of art. The project reaches out to different shamanistic traditions across the world, and it wasn’t easy to decide which should be the first to be introduced to our Utrecht audience. In the end, I chose “Postcolonial Spirits” not only because it highlights the surprising Dutch influence on certain Indonesian traditions, but also because Vincent Riebeek – no stranger to SPRING – will be joining Ka Fai on stage.” – Grzegorz Reske, artistic director SPRING