learning indonesian traditional dance

I’ve always been fascinated by all types of dances and I’ve always wanted to learn to dance but I just never got the time and the confidence to do so. I looked back several years and remembered that I once performed a traditional dance in an Indonesian theatre show. I realized that I actually had lots of fun learning those dances so I thought that learning Indonesian traditional dance would be perfect for my project. I also felt that over time I have strayed further away from my roots and culture around me so I wanted to take this opportunity to connect with my culture. Aside from learning the dances themselves, I also plan on learning about the history and meaning of this dance to understand more about my culture. Specifically, I would like to learn a Sundanese dance and a Betawi dance. The reason for this is that the Indonesian parts of my family are Sundanese. I wanted to first learn a dance that truly connected with my roots and my family. The reason why I then wanted to learn a dance from Betawi is that I currently live in a city in Betawi. I wanted to learn and connect with a culture that may not exactly be a part of my roots but a culture that currently surrounds me.

Product Goal

As I aim to learn Traditional dances and learn about them at the same time, the product of my Personal Project will be a website that will be able to showcase my dancing as well as information about the dance I learned. There will be 2 videos of me dancing and a summary of the information regarding the dance will be displayed like a short article. When deciding on my Personal Project, I realized that I should not only learn the dances but also learn about the dances. I initially decided to make a book but soon realized that I would not be able to showcase the dances themselves if I had written a book. I then opted to go with a website that would be able to perfectly showcase both my learning goals. On top of that, I’ve decided to create a diary section on the website. The diary section will be used to document my journey as I work on my Personal Project.

From My Roots Website:

https://jollarae.wixsite.com/frommyroots

Reflection

In the past 4 months that I’ve been working on my project, I most definitely have learned many things but I think the most memorable part for me is that I got to learn about myself and the cultures that have contributed to who I am today. As I worked on this project, I progressively kept realizing the importance of culture in our lives. I may not have directly been influenced by my Sundanese culture but my grandma was and she raised my mother who then raised me. In other words, growing up I was indirectly influenced by Sundanese culture and directly influenced by Betawi culture. These cultures have contributed to making me the Jolla Rae Ngabdi that people know today and I think that it’s very important for me to be able to acknowledge them. Being able to learn more about those cultures allowed me to further appreciate, connect, and communicate with the cultures and my ancestors in many different ways. I am also very proud of myself for being able to persevere in order to get to know myself and my family better through cultural perspectives. Throughout my lifetime I was never able to fully involve and dedicate myself to connecting with my culture so I think I made a great decision in choosing this project.

Doing my Personal Project also helped me realize how risky it is to procrastinate. There were many times when I had free time and thought of PP but decided that the due date was still far away and I had time to do it at the end of the year. Nearing the end of the year, however, there were many things that came up and had to do which further on resulted in me having one of the most stressful weeks of my life. I’ve always been a person who never does their work at the very last minute so rather than me learning to not work last minute, it was more of me learning to do my work whenever I have time. I think that I definitely should have organized my time better as I worked on this project. I got the project completed and on time but that didn’t change the fact that I failed to organize my schedule in a way that would minimize my stress. If ever I had the chance to do this project again, that’s definitely something I would change. I would create a more organized and friendly plan, especially for my report writing, and make sure I follow it as much as I can.

Product Evaluation

Overall, I think that my product was successful. I wrote many improvements as I evaluated the product but I think that’s mainly because there is always room for improvement. I’m quite happy with my outcome because this is my first time doing a project like this. If ever I get to do the project again though, I will take this evaluation into deep consideration and will do my best to improve my product. I think that an overall lesson for me that would help me improve in all the criteria is that I should pay more attention to detail. Paying attention to detail will allow me to meet the criteria to a greater extent.