DANCING

As to the development of dancing in the Mataram kingdom, records were left by a Dutchman who visited the king five time in the middle of the 17th century. This man, Rijklof van Goens, was. a delegate of the East India Company and declared in his written
report that Susuhunan Mangkurat I (the successor of Sultan Agung) held a dancing performance at each Seton celebration every Saturday, such as bedaya, srimpi, beksan, wireng and badut. Badut was a. comedy performance where the dancer wore an animal mask.

More evidence as to speedly development of dancing in Mataram is found in Babad Giyanti, which tells us about the division of Mataram into two kingdoms, those of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. The Babad Giyanti reports, that the regent of Panaraga had seven sets of bedayas, which means that he maintained seven times nine or sixty-three woman dancers. Thus, dancing in Central Java displays considerable development in the Islamic period but still maintains its feudal character.
With this development and the higher quality there appeared a style of dancing with its own features and characteristics, the Central Java style, more frequently called the Java style.
Meanwhile, West Java, with centres of development of dancing in the kingdoms of Banten and of Cirebon, created a style of its

Search This Site