Matah ati - A Tale of Love Through War

Kurt had a campout this past Friday night with his scouts. My friend, Sally also had a husband who was in the US for training so we decided to have a girl date on Friday night, Oct. 23. We went to see an Indonesian Opera/Dance performance called Matah Ati. It is a historical story about a King who finds a princess during the battles in the 1700s against the Dutch. The girl becomes a warrior princess with 40 women followers who supports the king in his battle against the Dutch. In the end they marry and start the Indonesian Mangkunegaran Dynasty. The dance was beautiful, the costumes were amazing and the musical instruments were very typical of the drums, the xylophones being struck by hammers, flutes, bells. The dance was called Javanese. Asian dancing is so beautiful. The hands and feet are very important in the dance. The Javanese dance is different than the dancing in Bali because in Bali they use crazy facial expressions in the dance (big eyes, funny mouth formations, etc.) In the Javenese dance they used the hands and feet similar to the Balinese dance but their facial expressions were very soft and stoic - which added grace to the dance. It was a very interesting experience and I enjoyed it very much. We had excellent seats with a wonderful view of the stage. It was the world premier for this production. It may be going worldwide or at least plans are to take it to Europe. It was nice to be there on opening night and see the VIPs.

Afterwards, Sally and I went to one of the Hawker Stands (local eating forum) and had some good BBQ pork and rice. Singapore is so beautiful at night. I love the night lights of Singapore. It's nice to be out and about walking in the city at night because it is so much cooler than in the day time. Times like Friday night are when I pinch myself and think - gosh, how blessed I am to be here. It was a good night.