Thursday evening we drove to a village outside Malang and attended what turned out to be one of the most amazing performances we have ever seen. The villagers acted out an ancient drama using masks and costumes they had made themselves. The dancers were acting out an ancient story of a princess whose hand is sought by several warring groups. The artistry of the costuming would have been enough to captivate us, but it was the grace and beauty of the dance itself that was so incredible. None of us Westerners, including an Australian family that had been there earlier for the making of the costumes, had seen anything like it. Here I am going to quote from a description of Javanese dance found in Clifford Geertz' well-known book on The Religion of Java: "Eyes must be kept fixed in one place, directly forward and a little down, giving a trance-like effect to the dance, an effect heightened by the frequent use of the 'waves of the sea' step, which is merely a gently rocking motion while standing in one spot, a motion that seems to be hypnotic for both the performers and the spectators. The set expression, the carefully controlled motions, give a feeling of inwardness, of concentration on the self, and of a conception of a perfection of self-contained grace which each dancer is trying to reach independently of the others." The whole of the dance was accompanied by the traditional Javanese gamelon orchestra, an experience in itself. But no description does it justice, so I will try to insert a clip of the performance below.
No comments:
Post a Comment