Cristina Duque, Seniman Ekuador Cinta Budaya Nusantara

Cukup banyak seniman asing yang jatuh cinta pada seni budaya Nusantara. Salah satunya Cristina Duque. Perempuan asal Ekuador itu belum lama ini tampil dalam Festival Panji Nusantara 2020 di Malang. Cristina berkolaborasi dengan  Sri Mulyani, koreografer dan penari senior asal Surabaya, serta para seniman yang tergabung dalam Pusat Olah Seni Budaya Mulyo Joyo, menampilkan karya berjudul Alap-Alap Anggraeni.

Sri Mulyani mengaku terkesan dengan ketekunan Cristina Duque mempelajari seni tari khas Jawa. Juga tembang-tembang tradisional Jawa yang mirip mantra itu. "Cristina mampu menyerap dan menguasai secara cepat," kata Sri Mulyani kepada saya di kawasan Rungkut Surabaya.

Sayang, saya tak sempat menemui Cristina karena sudah keburu pulang ke Jogjakarta. Dia memang tengah menyelesaikan studinya di Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI). Namun, Cristina yang sudah bisa berbahasa Indonesia dan Jawa itu mau diwawancarai secara tertulis.

Pertanyaan berbahasa Indonesia dijawab dalam bahasa Inggris oleh seniman asal Kota Quito yang sehari-hari berbahasa Spanyol itu.

Sudah berapa lama belajar di Indonesia? Sudah tampil berapa kali di festival kesenian?

"Since a year ago, I already have 17 performances in many places in Indonesia including festivals, exhibitions and video shootings."

Bagaimana ceritanya Anda mengenal Sri Mulyani dari Surabaya kemudian berkolaborasi di Festival Panji Nusantara?

"Mbak Sri and I, we met at the Bedog 2019 Yogyakarta Art Festival, so last year in December I was in Surabaya and I started collaborating with her and we talked about the history of Panji. We had rehearsals, but then we couldn't continue our process, because of covid, so this November 2020 mba Sri invited me to do our collaboration since he had this invitation to participate in the Panji festival, and finally we are doing it in Malang."

Bagaimana pendapat Anda tentang seni budaya Indonesia?

"Well, for me, Indonesia is incredible because its culture, it is a very rich country, and I am here to dance and perform and also play my Buddha. But the main thing is that I am here to study traditional Indonesian dances.

I really love this culture even sometimes it is very difficult for me to learn these traditional dances, and budaya, because I am from the other side of the world, but these difficulties make me find new semangat every time, I love your country, I love your budaya."

Bagaimana kesan Anda tampil di Festival Panji Nusantara di Malang?

"For me, it is really memorable to do this collaboration because we are working with a dalam that makes this mixture of the traditional with the contemporary, magical.

On the other hand we talk about Panji but it is very interesting for me to see these traditional stories, until now they exist, that is, their topics in depth, they are alive.

We worked a week full time, we had a rehearsal, then because of the crown we have to follow protocol and take care of our lives, but I think we have to start living together in this condition.

Humans have a really easy way of adapting our lives to conditions."

Terima kasih, Cristina! 

Gracias!