Supriyanto’s Details Energize Modern Style

The world of Javanese court dance fused with modern dance is a relatively small one, but Eko Supriyanto might change all that soon. He has already contributed to a few high-profile projects, dancing in Peter Sellars’ operas in Paris and London and serving as a dance consultant for Julie Taymor’s “The Lion King.” Now, he’s rehearsing for Madonna’s upcoming “Drowned” tour.

Madonna is lucky. Local audiences have been stunned by Supriyanto’s supple, exacting, mesmerizing style, seen in a Highways solo program and in the series of performances presented over the last few years by APPEX--the constantly intriguing Asia Pacific Performance Exchange program, based at UCLA.

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On Friday night at the Getty Center, he presented four new, riveting works--three solos with gamelan musicians onstage, masterfully conducted by I Nyoman Wenten, and “Dancing Trio Gebyar,” with Wenten on flute and I Dewa Putu Berata on drum.

During this piece, the musicians rose from their instruments, capering in the wide stance of traditional Indonesian dance, seeming to buffet and inspire Supriyanto with their sharp head shifts and stretched, vibrating fingers.

Much of the flavor of Indonesian classical dance is built into Supriyanto’s style, which is often ceremonial in its gravity (in “Last Flower in Spring”) and full of subtle, striking detail--drawing attention to the way toes are poised on the floor before leaving it, or to tiny, puppet-like shifts that precede stillness.

His sudden “release” moves in “Joged” added another dynamic, and at many times he embodied the martial, carving energy of a warrior.

Wenten’s music, too, had hybrid appeal, sounding at times like a gamelan-jazz jam. But it was Supriyanto’s night, and he filled it as satisfyingly as a sigh fills a pause after extreme pleasure.