The gracefull swing of a scarf, a smooth turn of a polse, the chained small paces on a shining floor, the blinking of the stones in the crown of the dancers on the moment that she, in a slow head movement, makes unforgettable impressions in the Javanese dance, long after the dance has ended. The spell cast from this centuries old refined dance is overwhelming, and so overwhelming that a visitor only after the show awakes from it's trance and realises what he has just seen.
The language of the movements
Unless a big variety of forms and places where shows are given - grom simple village ceremonies to busy pasar malam and a gracefull palace-pendopo - all Javanese have dance-features incommon. The seemingly unwilling body and the special postures of the neck, hands ancles, recall the same kind of dances from countries like Cambodia and Thailand, but as much with the
wayang kulit. The body of the dancer moves in a flat surface from left to right; the two dimensional effect of
wayang kulit. The stretched back and the awkward movements mirror Indian ways of dancing and a Javanese aestatic ideal.
Every study of moving is based on cultural and estectical values. Javanese ideals like controlling emotions, avoiding of conflicts and respecting expressions from the body and dance. A civilized Javanese distincts himself with refined behaviour. His face has to give a natural friendlyness and his movements have to be gratuate, controlled and flowing, never rure, sudden or in a hurry. And that's why it's not very strange that the education for the dance is also seen as education for behaviour as well; a refined Javanese moves refined, and refinement of a movement reads to refinement of personality. Dance instructor Sasmintamardawa from Yogyakarta says it this way:" Dancing lessons define behaviour for an important part."
In the precise worked out head-, feet and hand movements the Javanese show their love of refining and their passion for details. The difficult hand signs may have, just like other Asian dances, had a meaning, but on the whole that is lost a long time ago.
Ideal characters
The Javanese dance is just like the guiding gamelan music very structured. Movements are built from units which count eight counts and is adjusted tothe structure of the music. Every form of dance has it's own regulation. Whether it is a simple gesture or a complete choreography, development of an individual expression is hardly known.
Central in this and other traditional dance-, and theatre-forms is showing of many types of character, which exsist in the mythological world of kings, monkeys and giants. The stories are taken from stories of heroes like Ramayana and Mahabharata and to the story of Panji. Also they can have the Menak-history or an historical love history from the
babad ( Javanese books ) as subject. Which story it may be, every time the same features play, every one with a stereotype showing.
Just like in
wayang kulit in the dance are also recognisable personages, seen at the costume, specific movements and the language they use. Characters are divided in three main groups: womenlike, refined male and fierce male. The dance of the woman is a series of continuing subtile movements of legs and arms. The movements of the male dance are also subtile, but more powerfull than the women dance, while body movements have more freedom to move. The strong male dance is powerfull, with wide movements of lifted arms and legs.
Inside this three main groups there are many different features, specially made for refined and humble, fierce, rude and short-tempered. Also exeptional personalities like prince Arjuna, the white monkey Hanuman, and the goddess Indra have their own specific style. In a dance show not only the story is told, but also a variety of personalities is shown, in which the Javanese is familiar with.
Royal dances
With the royal dances of
bedoyo and
serimpi a formation dancers does the movements in perfect unity.
The
bedoyo, which is seen as the highest ideal of refinement, is the sacred dance, dedicated to the royal highness. In fact all
bedoyo-dancers are a part of the royal dinity, like
shakti or the women respect of the royal ruler. This is associated with Loro Kidul, the invisible, mythical goddess of the South Sea and 'quiet power' behind the throne.
The
bedoyo tradition is soaked with rituals and symbolism. In slow and static dance, nine young dancers move in one flowing movement from one precautious stand into another. The own identity is totally on the background, so it seems that they are one, undividable piece. People say that during the yearly returning event of the show of the sacred Bedoyo Ketawang at the royal house or Solo, Ratu Kidul appears as a bearlky visible 10th dancer, which goes to a private place with the royal ruler after the show.
The
serimpi is four dancers forming two pairs, which make the same movements in a seemingly reflection. The dancers, earlier only princesses, suppose to be fighting women, which fight eachother in a glorious and also avoid eachother. The
serimpi is less mysterious than the
bedoyo and has the status of the most refined woman style.
Solo dances
Solodancer are also showed in big numbers. Remarkable is, however it is a love needing lover, or a coquettish lady they show, they dress explicitly and wear excessive make-up.
Two women solo dancer are the
golek and the
gambyong. Both are sprouts from the
taledektradition of nomadic singers, which used to be associated with prostitution and farming rituals. There was a time that the
glodek was found too provocative by the royal house to be danced by a woman, so only men could do this job.
The Gambir Anom and the Kelana Alus are refined maledances from Surakarta ( Solo ) and Yogyakarta. They unite the male and female elements in a subtile way. In Surakarta the Gambir Anom is most of the times danced by a woman.
Gatutkaca Gandrung and kelana Topeng form the robust male opponents. The first shows the popular hero from the Mahabharata, which is
gandrung or desiring for love. The second plays the role of the angry king Kelana from the Panji-cycle, a rude and fierce personalyty which is short tempered. He wars a red mask (
topeng ) with round bulging eyes, a long nose and a big moustage.
Continuity and change
Traditional dance is teached in royal houses or in villages, but nowadays there are private schools and dance academies ( ASTI; Akademi Seni Tari Indonesia ). The education in royal dancing, that only took place inside the walls of the royal palace, is now allowed for anyone. Even foreigners stay in Central Java for years.
However these renewals didn't influence the way of teaching. The dances are in fact teached in interaction between the student and the teacher. There is no formal teaching schedule, the dance is not thought in special blocks and the movements are not separated. The students imitate the teacher, which repeats his movements endlessly and sometimes corrects slightly.
Traditions of dance and theatre change rapidly these times. The Ramayana Ballet of Prambanan - a gigantic theatre production with over 200 actors, developed on the hand of an tourist organisation - was the first break with the traditional ideals of beauty and was therefore a breakthrough either. People were used to see the dance from a little distance, so they could enjoy every small detail and the perfect costumes, movemebts and dialogues.
In Prambanan the dancers are no more than very small people, spread over a giand open air platform. However costumes and movements are still traditional, the dialogue is left away while the dance is more streamlined because of the line of the story. Special shows for tourists form nowadays the most important source of income for the dancers.
Also other changes are also remarkable. However they are still slow and quiet, the dances are shortened to fit modern time schedules. On the whole elements of Indonesian styles of dances are fitted, what is a great contrast to the fierce regionalism of earier times. New shows express scenes from daily life like the plantation of rice and weaving.
Such a process of adaption is not new. This was the cause of the start of the
golek dance in the 1920's, the time that most theatre dances got their actual chape. Even a robustly ritual dance, the
bedoyo started a proces of chance in the middle of the 18th century. It has been adapted to the taste of every royal ruler, time and time again.
