JAVANESE COURT PERFORMANCES
In
Bali dancing happens in temples, villages and courts. In Java there is a broader
split between village and court, and no temple dancing. Moving away from village
performance to the courts of Java. When the Dutch colonised Java, they used the
indigenous rulers to help them, and they subsidised their courts in return. In
Indonesia, court dance which developed during the colonial period has come to
represent national identity -- although every region is given its place in the
State culture, the court dances of Java are especially associated with official
state culture, and provide some of the most spectacular performance offered to
tourists and taken overseas. The stories are often Indian, but given an Islamic
interpretation. The dances are less extrovert than Hindu traditions in India,
and use gesture less mimetically. The movements are abstract, and the pacing
very slow. The dances traditionally did not mix genders, and by the 1920s were
being used to train courtiers in etiquette and manners which were gender
specific.
The
court or kraton repertoire consists of group performances, with two exceptions,
and can be divided up into female forms, fighting forms, solo forms, and dance
dramas.
REPERTOIRE
OF THE SULTAN'S KRATON, YOGYAKARTA
Bedhaya : long elaborate dance nine women (normally)
Srimpi
: fighting dance four women (normally)
Lawung
: fighting dance up to 42 men
Etheng
: fighting dance up to 12 men
Golek:
adornment dance one woman
Klana: adornment dance (sometimes masked) one man
wayang wong: dance drama men and women
golek
menak: dance dramamen and women
beksan/pethilan:set-piece
fighting choreographies men/women in pairs
The
following were filmed by F. Hughes-Freeland in Yogyakarta in August 1994.
Bedhaya
Bedhaya
is a long dance normally performed by nine female dancers, traditionally
associated with grand occasions, such as the sultan's birthday, foundation and
accession anniversaries, royal marriages, and receptions for important visitors
of state. Apart from stately entrance and exit marches, it has two sections: an
abstract part, and a story part drawing from the Mahabharata, Javanese legends and
chronicles, and increasingly, from the Menak cycle deriving from the Malay epic Hikayat
Amir Hamzah . Whatever the source, the second part of Bedhaya centres on a
conflict, expressed as a physical fight or as a resistance prior to submission
in love. Whether the theme is love or war, its expression is in a martial style
in the Yogyakartan tradition. Although kraton Bedhaya always tell a story, its
enactment is not represented by the dance gestures in a mimetic manner. From the
performer's point of view, Bedhaya is the most demanding of the kraton dances,
in the slowness of the movements, their subtle differentiation, and the duration
of the dance, which may last over two hours, although most Bedhaya now are
limited to one hour. Since independence, this kraton form has been given
Indonesian themes expressed in their names: Bedhaya for the Anniversary of Taman
Siswa (the famous nationalist education system), Revolution Bedhaya, Bedhaya
Pancasila (State Philosophy) and Bedhaya Virgin Mary. This one hour- long dance,
Bedhaya Tanjunganom, is a choreographic revival of a dance from the reign of the
seventh sultan, and was performed at the Kraton Festival in August 1994 which
was designed as a showcase for 'official' traditional Javanese art in the
context of the Indonesian Republic. It was performed by members of the Siswa
Among Beksa dance association who perform as amateurs out of a love of dancing
which is very traditional. The clip shows a sequence from the fight between the
protagonists
Video Clip
Beksan Lawung
The
kraton is famous for its fighting forms which it sees as representing its
militaristic past. The grandest dance, Beksan Lawung, is a series of lance ( lawung)
fights between champions, on which their supporters make bets. It has two forms:
Lawung Ag eng ("Great Lawung", also known as Trunajaya, after
the corps of soldiers who used to perform it), is danced in the
"strong" male modes, while Lawung Alit (Small Lawung) is done in the
"gentle" male modes. These dances are often performed now by sixteen
men, although at the end of the nineteenth a Dutch visitor witnessed a
"Great" Lawung with forty two dancers. This dance provides the best
opportunity for male dancers to demonstrate the spirit of Yogyakarta's founding
spirit, and was allegedly invented by the first sultan. This spirit is expressed
in the powerful music and forcefully muscular movement. Before Indonesian
independence it was performed at royal marriages in the kraton, and could be
performed in the Prime Minister's Residence to represent the sultan in his
absence. Lawung includes a certain amount of dialogue and joking as the dancers
make their bets on the fight, and evokes the macho ethos of the kraton barracks.
Today the "Great" Lawung retains something of its former exclusiveness
and tends only to be performed for very grand occasions, such as the sultan's
birthday in 1989, with Yogya's older leading performers dancing the senior
ranks. This clip shows senior dancers who are not professional dancers as such
rehearsing in the court in 1994.
Video Clip
Golek Menak
The
remainder of the repertoire are dance-dramas or excerpts from these larger
forms. Wayang wong dance drama was conceived as a form of human shadow
theatre and enacts stories from the Mahabharata, or a hybridized
combation with the Ramayana. Where wayang wong is based on the shadow
theatre, Golek menak is inspired by the golek puppet theatre. Golek menak
is sultan Hamengkubuwana IX's contribution to the kraton repertoire (reigned
1940-1988). Its plots come from the Serat Menak , and it brings
together music and dance styles from other regions (West Java and West Sumatra).
Golek menak is characterized by a movement style which is very different from
that of the other forms, especially the fluid feminine movement shown in Bedhaya,
and imitates the jerky neck and shoulder motions and the straight wooden hands
of golek puppets from which it takes its name. It is the only kraton form where
females fight with lances. During the 1980s it was mostly performed as female
fighting duets in the kraton. Attempts to stage a complete drama did not succeed
until after the sultan's death, when a gala premi ere was held in the
hall of the Yogyakarta Government Offices shortly after the tenth sultan's
accession in March 1989.
The
story, The Marriage of Kelaswara, tells of the conquest of a kingdom by the virtuous Muslim king,
Jayengrana. The clip shows part of a fight between the Chinese Princess (wearing
purple), and Kelaswara, who eventually triumphs to marry the Muslim king.
Video Clip