Goodbye and Good luck to Year 13

SILAT TUA - the indigenous martial art from South-East Asia.

On the 4th of April the Y12 IB Theatre group were visited by local artist Lian Sutton. Lian is a graduate of Singapore’s LASALLE’s acting program and, since then, has completed an MA in Arts Pedagogy & Practice by researching the pre-performance rituals of professional actors. He is currently co-founder of theatre collective Dark Matter Theatrics and artistic director of Nusantara Theatrical Combat (NTC). Lian spent the morning with our learners leading them in a workshop on Silat Tua, a traditional Malay martial art form.

What is Silat Tua?

Silat is a blanket term for an indigenous martial art from South-East Asia. The etymology of the word Silat varies from Silap (to make a mistake, i.e. an art of feigning), to Sekilat (‘as fast as lightning’), and even Sila, a variation of the word Silsilah, meaning ‘chain’, which is in reference to its transmission of knowledge from teacher to student as links in a never-ending chain (Farrer, 2009, p. 29). Silat Tua is directly translated as ‘old’ or ‘ancient’ Silat. It has been described as the “art of fulfilling the human potential” which is often manifested in practice as “the art of survival” (Zainal Awab & Sutton N., 2007, p. 21). In Silat Tua, “...the exponent explores all that makes him or her truly human” (Zainal Awab & Sutton N., 2007, p. 21). Described as the Malay dance of life, Silat Tua does not necessarily follow sets of rigid instructions and endless pre-arranged movement patterns like most traditional martial arts, rather it is an art that begins with “natural movement”, focusing “...on the strengths and weaknesses” of the exponent and “...the potential of the individual body” (Zainal Awab & Sutton N., 2007 p. 22). What is emphasised instead are basic principles and uses of imagery that are actualised in freestyle movement known as a tari ‘Dance’ in Malay.

The Workshop

The objective of the workshop was to introduce our learners to the image work of Silat Tua and how it may be used to create character, and to introduce basic unarmed stage combat techniques.

The workshop began with our learners warming up their minds and bodies and being introduced to Silat Tua imagery, namely the four elements (earth, water, fire, and air) and how these images can inspire movement and behaviour. In a world of increasing disconnect between Humans and Nature, the Silat Tua practice is a traditional martial art for bringing harmony and healing, as well as an understanding of how the building blocks of Nature can harmonise, complement and resonate with the natural resources of the human mind, body and spirit.

In the second half of the workshop, the learners were taught various common unarmed stage combat techniques such as punches, slams, hair grabs, and chokes. They then spent time choreographing fight scenes in pairs and perfecting the art of convincing character reactions.

It was an energetic and exciting workshop and our learners came away with real stage combat skills that they can use in their collaborative coursework performance. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the students, to thank Lian for his time, we hope you will come again.

References

Farrer, D. (2009). Shadows of the Prophet (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.

Sutton, L. (2014). The Dance of Life (bachelor’s thesis), LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Sutton, L. (2018). Silat Tua: Elements Tari. Performance/Demonstration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D60nstxI6fw&feature=youtu.be

Zainal Abidin Shaikh Awab, & Sutton, N. C. (2007) Silat Tua: The Malay Dance of Life. Kuala Lumpur: Azlan Ghanie.