Culture Insight: The Development of Women's Presence and Representation In Sundanese Dances

Source: Doc. Lises Unpad

Sunda is one of the ethnicities in West Java, Indonesia. Alike other ethnicities, it has a particular culture that deploys through its traditions, customs, music, and even dances. Generally, in ancient history, Indonesian dances often related to rituals and religious worship. It developed in centuries with the creation of court dances which usually played in a palace and folk dances that grew within inhabitants. In the history of Sundanese dances, they have three generations with each particular distinction and each era show development of women's participation and representation in dances. The era before 1945, dance was restricted to aristocrats only and its dance tends to have a court dance pattern. The feudalism has given an impact on the presence of women, even among the aristocrats, women were prohibited to dance, as they would build a negative impression.  Amidst citizens, the presence of women in dance was limited. At that time, the popular art performance by women was a tradition called ronggeng, a singer-dancer-courtesan that has a negative connotation to its performers.

Ronggeng dancer. Source : steemit.com

Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1945, a dance practitioner who was also a part of Sundanese aristocrats, Rd. Tjetje Soemantri, created for the first time a new genre of dance for women. He is known as a figure for Sundanese new creation dance. The choreography for its dance still has a tendency for court pattern but with some new arrangement. In this era, women started to take part in learning Mr. Tjetje dance. It has some particular patterns and rules through each movement in a dance that he created. For example, a dancer should not raise her hand 'till exceed her shoulder; a shoulder and a hip movement shouldn't too strong because it was considered too vulgar; a distance between two feet shouldn't have too much gap and the dancer couldn't raise her feet high. Those things were considered breaking the nature of a woman and would diminish its value. During this era, some dances such as Merak dance, Sulintang dance, Sekar Putri dance, e.t.c. are still popular among the citizens and still being preserved well.

Sulintang dance. source : pinterest.com

The 3rd era was started around 1980, an artist named Gugum Gumira created a breakthrough in the vocabulary of Sundanese dances. Jaipongan is a new genre of dance consisted of some basics Sundanese traditional art, such as Pencak silat (a type of martial art), ronggeng, ketuk tilu, Topeng banjet, bajidoran. The dance usually performed by couple, solo, or group and accompanied by an arrangement of gamelan music with kendang as an essential instrument. Historically, the feudalism that rooted in Sundanese society has influenced the creation of traditional art. This system has restrictions regarding the behavior of its people. Hence, these rules have limited the movement's exploration of a dancer, thus dances tend to slow, monotone, and shackled.

Jaipong dance. Source: worldofghibli.id 

The creation of the Jaipong genre was inspired by the socio-cultural situation in Sundanese people, especially in Bandung, West Java. The trend of western dances which more energetic, dynamic, agile, and free has intrigued the creator: Why the complex and rich Sundanese culture didn't have one?
 Jaipong was also inspired by ronggeng which always related to women's vulgarity. In contrast, this dance insisted to remove the stigma, it tried to portray the elegance of its dancer even they showed much of hip movement. In another part, Jaipong favors the strength of dance's esthetic value. The dynamic and high intensity's movement of this dance indicates the characteristics of the Sundanese woman, which are beautiful, gorgeous, elegant, humble, graceful, agile, and has a charming attractiveness. This genre has various dances, for example, Sonteng dance, Rendeng Bojong dance, Kawung Anten dance, e.t.c. These past few years, Jaipong has been developed and also inspired other artists to create new dances of this genre.

Jaipong in recent years. Source: Doc. Lises Unpad

Apparently, the three eras described above differentiate how women are represented through dances. The customs, the socio-cultural value, and society impress an adjustment of how art and its performers are perceived in social life. Less than a century ago, women were actually present in various traditional arts, particularly in dances, but it was somehow in a minimal amount. Distinguished by how each era deploys women in dances, it also remarked how they were represented. From a misleading show-off of vulgarity and sexuality, a high-class-to-be attitude, a part of patriotic symbol to a free-spirited human being. These changes happened because women are already recognizing their own value, it also helped by men's figures that realized the problems in society. It is also indicated that culture is dynamic and it may evolve along with modernization.
In just some decades, the role of women in dance is not only to be present and to entertain people. More than that, they also represent the hidden value of what women supposed-to: it is to be an individual who has complete control and responsibility of herself.