Free school preserves 'lengger' dance legacy

Free school preserves 'lengger' dance legacy

Slamet Susanto and Tarko Sudiarno, Wonosobo, Central Java

Wearing a T-shirt and a yellow scarf, Halimah, 16, fluttered her
hand gracefully. Her head and legs followed in the same graceful
manner to the sound of the kendang, kenong, kempul and
gong of the gamelan orchestra. Other girls watched her movements
from a distance.

Soeparno, 60, studied Halimah while giving instructions once
in a while. The laughter and the music filled the air at the
lengger traditional dance studio in Giyanti village in Selomerto,
district, Wonosobo.

Soeparno, the head of the Rukun Bedoyo Puteri workshop, said
the studio was established by his grandfather, Hadisoewarno, in
1975 to train dalang (puppeteers).

Hadisoewarno often invited his neighbors to practice at the
studio free-of-charge.

"There was no lengger or other dance studios at that time,"
Soeparno recalled.

He said that about 1977, the lengger dance underwent a crucial
transformation: it was performed by female dancers to make it
more attractive. In the past, the dance was performed by men
dressed as women.

As a result of the change, more women became interested in
learning the dance. On the other hand, fewer men wanted to become
lengger dancers or puppeteers.

"The lengger is a traditional dance that dates back to the era
of the Mataram kingdom (8th to 10th century AD). The soldiers
entertained themselves with the dance during the war. Since there
is no war now, the demands of society also changed.

"We do not know who started it, but the dance has featured
female dancer since 1975 to make it more attractive," Soeparno
said.

The female students at the workshop began opting for the dance
rather than the dalang training. In 1980, the dalang workshop was
transformed into a lengger dance workshop. The lengger dance of
Giyanti still uses a gamelan orchestra to accompany the dance.

Besides the studio, the workshop also include a boarding house
for visiting students.

Soeparno said that the dance workshop had no particular goal.
He said he and his predecessors only wanted to preserve Bali's
culture.

Thus, there is no specific curriculum at the lengger dance
studio, he said, adding that nor was there a time line for
graduation.

A student who can show his or her ability to perform the
lengger is considered "graduated". To reach this point can take a
student anywhere from one month to more than a year.

Soeparno's family pays for the studio's operational costs,
since students study there for free. Nor does the studio receive
financial support from the local authorities. Money from the sale
of rice from their family land is allocated to pay the studio's
daily expenses. The staff and the students eat modestly.

"We do not require the students to pay for their training. We
even provide lodging and simple food for visiting students. I
understand that we are in a difficult situation, but we have
absolutely no intention to close down the studio."

"There are hundreds of alumni from our workshop; I can't even
count their numbers. Many of them become housewives while other
are still performing for a living. We are now housing 13
students."

Dwi Pranyoto, Soeparno's son, said the students were required
to contribute 10 percent of their performance fees to the school.
Their contributions are used to subsidize visiting students and
to pay for the day-to-day operation of the studio.

The school did see an improvement in its financial condition
when Wonosobo began to attract tourists in 1999. Many travel
agencies started looking for lengger dancers to perform at the
Sasono Krido Budoyo arts building in Giyanti village every Monday
evening.

The dance at the arts building was scheduled to last for
between one hour and 90 minutes. Because this was shorter than
normal, the dance movements were also cut down. The full dance
can take a whole night to complete.

Dwi said the studio made about Rp 500,000 (US$54) each time
the students performed the dance. The money is divided among 15
people, consisting of dancers and musicians, after a 10 percent
deduction for the studio.

"The final amount is no different from what we get when we
perform at hotels. There will be additional money, of course, for
transportation. The hotel operators used to ask us to bring our
own gamelan set, though they have their own at the hotels," Dwi
said.

One tour agent, L. Agus Tjugianto, has pledged to help
preserve the dance. He took the initiative to help the studio
modernize its management, for example by creating a commercial
dance troupe to earn income.

However, he noted that the dance troupe still needed to
improve. He said the dancers were not as serious as they should
be about the performance.

He said at the troupe's last performance at a hotel, the
dancers had all the movements down but lacked the passion. The
musicians, he said, also brought their children with them to the
performance, which turned out to be a bad idea when the children
could not sit still through the performance and bothered the
other people around them.