COURT DANCES OF CENTRAL JAVA
| The great tradition of Javanese dance evalved
in the Javanese courts through the patronage
of many different ruling dynasties. With
the exception of Central Java, during the
colonial oppression of the Dutch, the Javanese
courts fell into obscurity. It was the Treaty of Gianti in 1755 that divided the Kingdom of Mataram into Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Each of the two courts developed different unique styles and practices., and the end of the 18th century marked a period of accelerated activity, where to this day, the great tradition of court dances has been preserved and fostered.  Wayang Wong PerformanceThe Wayang or shadow theatre began in ancient times as a religious performance to invite the spirits to enter earthly mediums in the forms of puppets, wooden images, or humans. During the second half of the 18th century, Sultan Hamengku Buwono I (1755-1792) developed the use of human (wong) puppets in a form of dance-drama that was called Wayang Wong. The first performance was held in the Yogyakarta Court in the 1750’s to commemorate the coronation. Later Sultans added their own concepts of staging, casting and costume. Hamengku Buwono VIII (1921-1939) raised the Wayang Wong to an ultimate degree of perfection. Bedaya Dance
The Bedaya was originally the ruler’s personal retinue, a discreet bodyguard, composed entirely of women. As dancers they continue to carry small arms such as tiny daggers hidden in the voluminous folds of their costumes. The Bedaya Ketawang, which is the epitome of classical Javanese dance, was created early in the 17th century when Sultan Agung of Mataram (1613-1645) invited Nyi Roro Kidul, Queen of the South Seas, to teach the Bedaya a dance that he had seen on a visit to her court at the bottom of the sea. Nyi Roro Kidul, in the persons of the sister of the King Pajajaran, had been madly in love with the Sultan’s grand father, Panembahan Senopati. Senopati, rather than marry her and be committed to the deep for eternity, promised that Nyi Roro Kidul could have as husbands his eldest son and all the eldest sons of his line thereafter. When Sultan Agung’s turn came, he gave the Queen the alternative of being forever able to express her love to the ruler of Mataram through the medium of Bedaya Ketawang dance. The dancers, dressed as royal brides, bend and sway in slow, sustained movements of consummate grace. There are only nine dancers, but a tenth can sometimes be seen by those who have the power, as the Queen joins her pupils. The Bedaya Ketawang is not only a romance, but also a sacred dance of deep significant, performed only on the anniversary of the coronation to a very limited audience. It is inherited by the Susuhunans of Surakarta as part of royal regalia. Srimpi DanceThe Srimpi began as a religious dance, said to have been created by Brahma himself, who had to provide himself with four faces so that he could appreciate its beauty from all directions. The Srimpi became a favourite of Central Javanese Courts and is used to train the princesses, since it contains the entire repertoire of primary dance movements. Most stories, derived from the Islamic period, revolving around a battle between two female warriors; a pair of armed dancers in battle attire portrays each character in perfect symmetry. |
