Falling for a Javanese folk dancer, beware the surprise

Falling for a Javanese folk dancer, beware the surprise

Text by Singgir Kartana, photos by Ali Budiman

WONOSOBO, Central Java (JP): Once there was a very pretty
dancer in a village in Wonosobo regency, Central Java. Many were
charmed by her beauty. Men in her audiences were infatuated by
her and vied with one another for her affections. In a very short
time, this dancer earned her fame and her name became a household
word.

Unexpectedly, however, all this admiration for the dancer
disappeared into thin air and people were shocked when it was
found out that the pretty dancer was a man made up to look like a
real woman. This sensational news caused people to flock to the
village to prove it was not only a fairy tale.

That is how the lengger dance first came about, according to
traditional stories passed down in Wonosobo and its surroundings.
This dance is now very popular in Wonosobo, a plateau rich in
vegetables. The word lengger is made up of le, the first syllable
of ledek (teasing), and ger, the second syllable of geger (uproar
or commotion). As lengger is easier to pronounce than leger, it
is the former that has become popular.

There is no historical record, however, about when exactly it
came about. According to legend, the dance was already practiced
at the time when Hinduism was first spread in Java. Another
version has it that this dance was first introduced when the
Panji epic stories gained their popularity. This latter version
may be true because Panji stories are used as the framework of
the dance.

Prior to 1960, a lengger dancer was a man wearing women's make
up. To convince the audience, usually rather effeminate males
were chosen. The man was made up in such a way that he closely
resembled a woman. The dance itself is just like the popular
tayub dance. A lengger dance is usually performed by 10 people
comprising a dancer and escorts. The instruments for the
accompanying music are simple, including a wind gong, keprak
(cymbal) and a number of angklung, suspended bamboo tubes which
sound when shaken.

A lengger dance is usually performed during the night.
Actually the purpose is to enable the dancer to hide his identity
in the darkness of the night. To be erotically attractive to the
male audience, each performance will entail the singing of songs,
the words of which arouse men's sexual desires. The words of
these songs are practically erotic.

"People used to call it street art because it was then hawked
from one village to another," said Pak Maat, 61, a former lengger
dancer from Giyanti village, Selomerto, Wonosobo.

However, a performance like this did not last long. The
audience became bored with the monotony of the dancing alone. The
erotic words of the song, unfortunately, were a stigma for the
dance itself. So, toward the 1960s the lengger dance almost lost
its popularity. However, some artists and art workers tried hard
to revive this dance but a number of factors have made their
efforts futile.

"The lengger artists have done their best to revive this dance
but the problem now is that films and music have gained access to
this area and become more popular than the traditional lengger.
Obviously, lengger can hardly sell any more," said Pak Maat.

Not all of the hard efforts made by lengger artists have come
to nothing though. Suparno, 51, a dancer from Giyanti village,
also has an obsession with reviving the lengger art. So, in Putri
Budoyo, his lengger dance workshop, with about 80 members, which
he inherited from his parents-in-law, he has begun to introduce
reform to the dance to suit it to the progress of time. The
instruments for the accompanying music, originally only a wind
gong, keprak and angklung have now been replaced by a set of
Javanese slendro and pelog gamelan. The songs with erotic words
have been changed with those containing advice. The costumes of
the dancers, originally very simple, have now been turned into
colorful and shiny ones. And last but not least, the dancers,
originally males, are now real women.

The changes introduced by Suparno, a father of four, has
brought fresh wind to the future of lengger. This reformed
traditional dance seems to have been revived. Many lengger
groups, previously disbanded, have sprung up again, following the
changes introduced by Suparno.

Today, lengger dance performances are quite attractive. Thanks
to the support from Dwi Pranyoto, 27, one of Suparno's children,
a lengger performance is now complete with a curtain and stage
and lighting equipment, as well as a proper sound system. The
dance movements have been enriched by those of dances from other
regions. The reform in the dance movement was introduced when Dwi
completed his studies at the dance stream of Yogyakarta's
Javanese art high school. So now Suparno and Dwi have made
Giyanti village, particularly Putri Budoyo, the largest lengger
dance center in Wonosobo regency.

"Although the dance element is still predominant in a lengger
performance, I have added some dialog and a little humor, just to
prevent it from being monotonous. As for the dance movements, I
have added to lengger the movements of the Javanese, Balinese,
Sundanese and modern dances," he said.

A lengger performance now usually begins with the horse
plaitwork dance performed by six female dancers made up as
gentlemen. Then it is continued with the gambyong menak dance,
performed by a number of primadonna dancers. After this dance
goes on for some time, masked dancers appear. These dancers, the
same in number as the gambyong menak dancers, are women made up
as gentlemen. Then the masked and gambyong menak dancers dance
together in pairs.

"Those considered as primadonna dancers are usually those who
are pretty and can make gracefully flexible dance movements,"
said Sumiyati, 21, one of Putri Budoyo's primadonna dancers.

The last part of the dance closes with a trance attraction by
male dancers. This dance is the most interesting part because of
the surprising and scary scenes. It is surprising, for example,
when a male dancer in a trance has a woman dancer standing on his
shoulders. With the male dancer moving here and there in his
trance dancing, the female dancer keeps on dancing her dance,
too. This attraction requires excellent skill to keep the balance
because the woman dancer wears her traditional jarit cloth, which
does not allow her to freely move her legs.

A scary scene, for example is when some male dancers, still in
a trance, eat dangerous objects such as broken glass, razors and
burning coal. Surprisingly, nothing bad happens to their mouths.

All these attractive dancing scenes are the results of
improvisation and reform, proving that conserving a traditional
art form does not simply mean presenting the originality of the
past without the courage to introduce reforms. Nothing is
eternal. The lengger dance cannot survive and serve as a cultural
identity without going through a continuous process of change.
And so lengger must continue to build its identity.