Traditional Indonesia Dance Workshop
Bapak Waleed has been invited to teach a Traditional Indonesian Dance workshop for the Phoenix Dance Troupe on Sunday, October 9, at Yale University. Phoenix is the premiere Asian Dance group on campus at Yale, dedicated to cultural dance from throughout Asia, both traditional and contemporary. The group is entirely student-run, and presents several performances each year. While space is limited, if you wish to attend the workshop, please contact us.
The largest archipelago in the world, Indonesia, contains several hundred indigenous cultures each with their own traditional arts and dances. This Workshop will focus on traditional movements from West Sumatra, where the Minangkabau community survives as one of the oldest and largest matrilineal societies in the world. Traditional dances in West Sumatra are performed at weddings and other important ceremonies, and the unique costumes and headdress often highlight the closeness of the Minang culture to nature. The dance is related to the traditional movement system Silat, as well as to traditional theater, Silat Randai, all of which are customarily accompanied by the Gamelan, traditional Indonesian orchestra.
Bapak Waleed is the Founder of the International Silat Federation of America and Indonesia, a group dedicated to promoting and establishing the traditional cultural arts and dances of the Minangkabau community of West Sumatra, Indonesia. He is consistently called upon both in the United States and in Southeast Asia to lecture, teach, and perform the traditional movements of Silat Tuo Minang and the oldest cultural movements and dances. Students of all ages and backgrounds have benefited in learning from Bapak Waleed over the past several decades.