Ramayana Under the Stars

Do come for "Ramayana Under the Stars", on Saturday May 22, 2010, which is held in conjunction with the Peranakan Museum exhibition! There will be gamelan performances, wayang kulit, and dance performances that day, amidst other workshops, booths etc! The museum would also be free admission that day...a good family outing trip! :)

I will be dancing as Sita in the Ramayana dance drama, "Sita's Entrapment". In this interpretation of Rama and Sita, I look forward to portraying Sita as a materialistic, spoiled brat....heehee ;) I believe I wasn't ever a spoiled brat as a child, and certainly don't think I am one now, nor do I think I am materialistic, so it would be super-fun for me to have this opportunity to be all these in this dance drama! ;) Whine whine whine....haha ;)

For those who know the typical ending to the Ramayana, Sita is made to undergo a test of fire by Rama, after Rama saves her from Rahwana, in order to prove her "purity", since she did stay at Rahwana's palace during her abduction. Sita survives the sacrificial fire, being raised from it by the Lord of Fire, attesting to her purity. Whenever I think about this part it makes me sad. First of all, trust between Rama and Sita seems to be absent, and yet, he claims that he loves her. If he did, how could he possibly bear to see her jump into the fire?! And obviously the concept of forgiveness and understanding went straight out the window as well. Did Rama save Sita to prove his ego, and just to compete and prove that he can win? Well, I certainly hope the concept of "purity" has changed in the society today. I hope that purity in the heart & mind can transcend the physical, and forgiveness prevails.

So the story continues that after many years of blissful marriage and togetherness as king and queen, the rumors among the people concerning Sita's "purity", causes Rama to yield to public opinion, and banish Sita to the forests, whereby she gives birth to Rama's twins. -_-" Sad. I guess to be "fair", it's difficult when your relationship is in the view of and being judged by the public, especially when you are king. But I still think one's love relationship is one's "business" with one's partner and no others, just like one's relationship with God/gods/goddesses etc is ultimately one's "business" with God/gods/goddesses etc and no others. Eh....in any case, to end on a more pleasant note, on love, I vehemently agree :) with William Shakespeare, quoting Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.