Hi guys,
Just came accross this site today. Good to see an active silat forum which I can understand! (English).
I train at EastWest studios in the UK, under Steve Benitez.
If anyone is interested, here is a link to a series of published artcles on what we do. http://eastweststudios.com/ews/articles.htm
Also, hi Bram.... how are you keeping? Long time no speak...
Cheers,
Satria
Hi Martin nice to see you posting...welcome, and salaams to the Hendon crew, I hope you get your film out soon
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Talking about film I might say that Steve Benitez and friends have been working hard on a widescreen film featuring silat, you know, with sexy stars and everything. These guys have been the ones making Wesely Snipes (my son says he is famous) learn to sempok. The link Satria provided is also very interesting. For Indonesians especially, it documents the efforts of the Hendon crew in studying and spreading silat in the UK. These guys have also entered the US and teach silat to the famous Dan Inosanto too. They are young and dedicated, and often visit Indonesia for intensive latihan. I think the last time Steve came here he did a 40 day fast and competed in a Benjang match in a kampung in Bandung.
Steve and his school have become controversial several times in the Indonesian silat circles, mostly IMO due to those difficult cultural nuances, but every time an issue has arisen Steve has always made open minded steps to clarify. If he makes a mistake he admits it without ego and his next step would be to avoid the mistake again. His students are very well trained and their silat -which looks very West Sumatra based- is beautiful. Their studio teaches Cimande too, but they don't say it is the most deadly. They have contacts with many silat schools in Sumatra and Jawa and can refer students there.
The Hendon crew recently have been calling themselves "Satria Fighting Arts". On the internet, you will find that they first emerged as "Pencak Silat Hasilkan Penuh", then they changed that mouthfull of a name to the short and great "Walisongo". The name Walisongo caused eyebrows to be raised, because Steve is a Christian and Walisongo are the beloved aulia from the Palestine, Persia, Morroco, China and Jawa who speard Islam and alchemy through Jawa. I raised this issue with him and told him that some find it insulting and believe that some manipulation must be going on, because of the name, and he explained: "No,no,no, we don't mean any disrespect at all. The name Walisongo we use to respect the Wali, because when our Guru Besar was practising silat in Jawa, she felt that the Walisongo were watching over her." I was satisfied with that, but other people were not.
This is why I congratulate the move to now call the school "Satria Fighting Arts", which includes silat Walisongo. By making the name Walisongo the name of a silat rather than a silat school, it doesn't attract questioning. This is a very inteligent move and shifts people's attention away from that dangerous ground of religious sensitivity and debates based or fueled by religion. Selamat to the Satria Fighting Arts school.
Doesn't this forum think that it would be great to actually get all the satria fighting arts including fighting on horseback with the long lance, the short spear, the pedang, the cambuk perang, sumpit, and the Jawa bow and arrow? I think these days we should stay away from tests of fights with wild banteng bulls or hungry tigers and mad water buffaloes. But there is more than that, in the completeness the satria Jawa in the heights of his cultural achievements he or she also fought on elephants.
Warm salaams to all,
Bram.