Lovers and fans of Balinese dance movements were left awed and found themselves mesmerised by the show of Hambali From His Eyes dance act performed at Yasmin at Kong Heng on May 21 recently.
The show was a contemporary Balinese dance performance that follows a man’s journey to become the greatest Balinese dancer. Aside from telling his journey, the story also contained a spiritual element as Hambali means ‘A slave to God’.
“It all started when I first watched Hambali being staged for the first time in my university last month. The performance was so amazing that I knew it was meant to be seen by many. I took the courage and approached the team with the idea to re-stage their production and perhaps do a tour. And now we are here, before heading to KL for another show,” said Roshafiq Roslee, the representative and emcee of the event.
Ipohite Roshafiq decided to showcase Hambali From His Eyes in Ipoh after the first show on April 13-16 and the third will be at KLPAC on May 26 till 28 where the performance will be slightly longer than the one in Ipoh.
The lead dancer of the show, Zhafir Muzani is truly an amazing performer. His movements were delicate and intricate. Having to lose 10kg just to make sure he would be perfect for the role, shows how much he is dedicated to play the main character.
“Zhafir is also the director of the show and during his practicum programme in Yogyakarta, Zhafir took the chance to learn and study Balinese dance for a year. According to him, this dance needs a lot of discipline and depends hugely on eye movements co-ordinated to body and intricate hand and arm postures. Balinese dancers definitely need to be physically fit,” added Roshafiq.
“The late Yasmin Ahmad loved Ipoh. Ipoh is the city that celebrates arts and culture. I can see that theatre and cultural shows are slowly bringing a hum to the city. We hope by bringing Hambali From His Eyes to Ipoh, it will help to promote more performing arts to Ipohites,”explained Roshafiq.
Ili Aqilah
