Dear Friends,
It’s been over a year since we initiated the Odissi class for the children and young teenagers from the Hiichiikok Foundation home, situated not far from Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. Our interest in the group peeked when we discovered many of them were Orang Asli children from the Temiar community.
However, the dance development at Sutra for this group has been slow and laboured and there were times when we despaired that we might not be getting anywhere with their progress. We seemed to be merely running an extracurricular physical education course for the kids to kill time. The teachers who took this class were sometimes demoralised.
I came across the Hiichiikok Foundation home just over a year ago when Sutra approached Yayasan Budimas to help us find dance students from other homes for our dance outreach program.
Some years ago, before the onset of Covid, Sutra had developed interest in the Orang Asli communities. I became interested especially in the Temiar community and in the manner they have navigated their present lives with the onslaught of our aggressive urban development.
Those days, I had followed anthropologist Marina Roseman to the Temiar Village of Santeh on the upper reaches of Perak, bordering Kelantan, to understand more of their culture.
Thanks to Marina, I had some interesting interactions with the community.
We lost contact when Covid crisis came and each of us held on to dear lives, hell bent to fortify our own premises to survive the crisis.
Therefore, I was delighted to have met again the Temiar children at the Hiichiikok Foundation. I proposed to their guardian (Ms Freida) that Sutra would take on, free of charge, a weekly dance class for the youths, especially, the Orang Asli Temiar children. Some of the children were not Orang Asli but were from the B40 group of other communities.
The children & youths who are boarding at the Hiichiikok Foundation also study at a nearby government school.The weekly dance class started but the attendance were always irregular and adhoc. New students suddenly appeared and disappeared. It was a challenge to keep the registration of attendance in order.
I had informed Freida, their guardian, of our dilemma to instil regularity to maintain discipline and efficiency but I sensed she also had her hands full. We were careful not to rock the boat as these precious youths represent our hope and direct effort to make it better for their future.
We are not expecting them to be excellent dancers but we know that the physicality of the dance discipline would be good for character building. Actually, this was a familiar problem we faced for all the B40 groups we dealt with previously in our other dance outreach programs. It was a Catch-22 dilemma.
The premise may not be fully understood by their guardians who are just relieved to have them busied and away at another centre.
I must say, like all children, they are a bundle of raw energy and love the sense of space that Sutra personifies. They love to run about the garden and are happy to be part of the natural surroundings.
Sutra premises are ideal for them. (Such are the noise and the energy released when they arrive that Sutra’s dogs would scamper and hide in the office when the children arrive, usually an hour earlier for their weekly class…).
In the same breath, we want to share the joys and tribulations of teaching the kids. After all, they are children who look forward to being children.
Expectations are high that they perform. However, dance, and for that matter any classical genre, be it music, painting or even sports, requires the hard work and honing of talent, the same as preparing a champion for a gold medal.
Presently, we are happy if we contribute towards their good coordination, communication skills and even good posture of these children to be good and upstanding future Malaysian citizens!
Ramli