On June 25th, we received a last-minute request from the Indonesian Consulate (KJRI) in NYC to perform for the first-ever East Coast Gathering for the Indonesian Student Association in the United States (PERMIAS) in New Jersey. I want to thank Guru Agus Salim of Tunggal Hati for having us come along and my student John for volunteering to drive last minute all the way to Rutgers University! One of the strengths of the silat training I have been blessed with is the ability to organize (and pull off) a demonstration with little prior notice. Essentially we planned it on the car ride over and it worked really well! We had a lot of fun demonstrating solo performances (including my close-quarters version of the sport silat form Jurus Tunggal Baku) and choreographed/mostly-improvised weapon techniques. We are excited to perform again for PERMIAS Massachusetts at the huge New England Indonesian Festival in Boston on September 28th ( https://www.neindofest.com/ )!
We definitely had an illustrious audience for this performance. We were honored to meet one of the founders of PERMIAS, Professor Dr. Bana Kartasasmita who was very generous in sharing his knowledge of Indonesian culture with us. We were also grateful to meet Dr. Popy Rufaidah the Educational and Cultural Attache for the Indonesian Embassy to the U.S as well as Mr. Rizal Wirakara, Consul of Social-Cultural & Information Affairs from KJRI NY. Also, thank you to Dr. Debabrata Banerjee for helping to organize this event and to everyone for supporting traditional Indonesian Martial Arts in the United States
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