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.