Cirebon mask dancer Rasinah still fascinating at 69

By Tuti Gintini

JAKARTA (JP): Appearing on stage with a fragile physique, wrinkled skin and gray hair has not made 69-year-old Cirebon mask dancer Rasinah lose her charm. Hundreds of people crowded Gedung Kesenian Jakarta on Thursday night and watched, seemingly without blinking, her dance. Extended applause after every number kept her spirit alight.

Rasinah is a renowned Topeng Cirebon (Cirebon mask) dancer who had the honor of performing as part of the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta International Festival 2000. Her show proved that age does not matter as far as the art to which she has dedicated her life is concerned.

The night belonged to her. She performed Panji as her opening number and Klana for the close. The audience did not miss a single movement or gesture she made.

She communicated with the audience with her movements and showed she understood the philosophy of body language. A quick glance might have shown she moved clumsily, but in fact her dances were full of symbolic meaning and inner energy.

In Cirebon and neighboring regencies of Indramayu and Losari, the audience closely observes the dancer's movements before and after she puts the mask on. Each style has a different mask and thus each dance has different characteristics.

Meaning of life

Cirebon mask dancing is different from other mask dances in coastal areas of West Java and elsewhere. The dancer has a message about the meaning of life to communicate to the audience.

In Panji, for example, Rasinah told the audience about the importance of nafsu mutmainnah, or longing for good deeds, that will eventually bring peace and happiness. While in Klana, she warned the audience about anger and ego which are often uncontrollable.

In Panji, her gestures were monotonous, minimalist, powerless, slow and repetitive. But there lay the dancer's strength. She was embodying a spiritual struggle that exerted enormous energy to be released in to the universe.

When she was still, she was in fact trying hard to exert her energy from within by controlling her breathing to regulate the rhythm of her gestures. The audience was expected to capture the energy that radiated through her movements.

In Klana, Rasinah displayed exceptional vitality despite her age. She was like a powerful warrior battling against ocean waves.

Her vitality was accompanied by loud music and incessant noisy shouts, typical of folk performing arts popular among people in coastal areas. The loud music boosted Rasinah's energy.

Gamelan instruments used in Cirebon mask dancing are different from those in Javanese or Balinese gamelan. In addition to the standard gongs, drums and flutes, on Thursday night the musicians also played the jenglong (a low-tuned set of horizontal gongs) and the kebluk (a 'bunched' sounding set of horizontal gongs).

For Rasinah, the mask is her energy of life that radiates into the universe.

She learned about the stage when she was a baby. She recalls her mother, who was also a mask dancer, carrying her on her back when she was performing. Rasinah was only two months old then. She was born and brought up in a family of artists.

When she was 10 she was already a Cirebon mask dance star. Thursday's performance proved, age has matured her skills.

Her career in mask dancing has moved up and down. In the 1970s, when western pop culture flooded the country, mask dancing, like other folk arts, almost died. Her dance company was disbanded.

Rasinah disappeared from the stage until 1994 when she made a comeback thanks to help from various quarters, including Endo Suanda and Toto Amsar -- both teachers at the Bandung College of Arts.

For Thursday's show, her troupe consisted of Wangi Indriya (singer and dancer) and Nuranani and Ropendi (dancers). The musicians and narrators were Taham, Plongo, Kaspingi and Candra.

Beside Panji and Klana, Rasinah also performed Pamindo, Bodor (Clown), Pamindo Abang, Patih, Tumenggung and Jinggananom.