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TONG TANA

From Andrew Garton's wiki

This page is being drafted. Agarton 21:42, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Contents 1 About 2 Performances 2.1 Cape Town 2.1.1 Program

About

TONG TANA – cabaret as structured improvisation composed.

TONG TANA (Penan for "into the forest") is a series of metaphorical stories inspired by the diminishing forests of the world, deep concerns for their rapid urbanisation and the dispossession from land that troubles all continents. No country appears immune.

TONG TANA draws direct influence from the indigenous peoples of Sarawak (one of two states of Malaysia on the island of Borneo), struggling to maintain their customary right to the land that feeds them, that they protect and have lived with for countless generations.

One musician claims to retain twenty-seven generations of music for the sape alone, all of which were composed and performed in the forests of Bakun where the largest, and most controversial, hydro-electric dam in the southern hemisphere is being built. Two students remain to learn not only his skills, but the entire musical heritage of his people.

TONG TANA, a journey into the forest, the communities that have grown there and the fragility of their culture in the face of modernity and the collapse of a life interwoven with nature.

Performances

Cape Town

Début performance of TONG TANA performed by Andrew Garton in collaboration with Cape Town based, Benguela, and visualist, Andrew Parker.

Program

• ACT 1 – Into the forest
• ACT 2 – Forest Drift – instrumental in four movements
  • Transpirations 1 (Brydon Bolton)
  • In The Thick of It (Ross Campbell)
  • Mien Kindling (Alex Bozas)
  • Compost Hotel (Andrew Garton)

You are free to photograph and video this performance on the provision that you share you images with us. Leave them on Flickr, Vimeo or Youtube.

Tag them with “tongtana, agarton, benguela”. Please use either Creative Commons “BY” or “BY-NC-SA” licenses.

Share and be part of TONG TANA. Your images and video will be used in further performances to support independently funded artists and their work to assist the forest communities Sarawak.

Andrew Garton http://agarton.org/ Benguela http://benguela.co.za/ Secession Records http://secession-records.org/

Produced by Benguela and Secession Records in association with Alliance Francaise with the support of the Association for Progressive Communications.