'Gandrung' dance retains popularity

By Ahmad Solikhan and Ali Budiman

BANYUWANGI, East Java (JP): Copper-red rays from lanterns flooded the stage. The fragrance of scattered jasmine and kenanga flowers induced a heightened romantic ambience. The audience around the stage had been waiting since early evening and could hardly contain their impatience at the emergence of the beautiful dancers.

And then, accompanied by the sounds of gamelan in the East Java style, two gorgeous girls wearing hair buns and dressed in kebaya, traditional women's clothing, swayed onto the stage moving their sashes with curved fingers. They cast glances at the audience while undulating their bodies.

The applause of the crowd added to the feverish atmosphere of the show when the gandrung (dance girls) sang a love song in the Using vernacular of Banyuwangi, translated as: "I am an example of someone lulled by sweet lips, I have lost my virginity, and I deeply deplore life." The Using vernacular is a mixture of East Javanese, Madurese and Balinese.

The two gandrung slowly descended from the stage, dancing all the way while approaching the audience members. They took off sampur, sashes of various colors from their throats and wound them one by one around audience members' necks. A little later, a man with a sash around his neck nimbly tailed the two dancers onto the stage to dance together.

The men given the opportunity to dance with the gandrung are called paju. They are usually charmed by the dancers' beauty, challenging looks and alluring bodies. They slip banknotes into the dancers' cleavage.

It is not surprising that many paju are tempted to pass the night with the gandrung, showering hundreds of thousands of rupiah on them. The sampur entitles the paju to 10 to 15 minutes for which the paju parts with at least Rp 10,000. It is very rare that men refuse the opportunity to get a sampur. They even vie with each other, and if necessary, show off a wad of money to get it. The purpose is to spend the whole night with on of the prima donnas.

"There is nothing new to the behavior of most gandrung," said M. Sakur, an audience member from Jember.

The gandrung is a traditional part of Banyuwangi culture, known for many generations until today. Gandrung performances are given on national holidays, at weddings and at other parties. In general they take place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on open stages, in yards and buildings. The audience members are mostly adult males from Banyuwangi, Jember, Bali and surrounding areas.

According to Asmawati, 35, a gandrung girl living in Pancoran, Banyuwangi, a dancer must go on a "white" diet for three days, eating only one fistful of rice each day, prior to a performance in order to lure spectators. She should also read certain mantras obtained from a kiai (leader) with magical powers, as a decoy and for precautions. These efforts would make the dancer look beautiful, radiant and give excellent performance the whole night.

A gandrung group usually involves at least five people. The gamelan players are not required to be members but are expected to be available when needed. The fee for a group's performance is between Rp 300,000 and Rp 400,000. It may also depend on the host. It does not include the tips lavished by the paju on the gandrung for dancing and "dating".

"The group I lead performs three times a month. In times of celebrations the number can increase to 10 to 15 appearances," said Asmawati.

Sometimes one of the more successful gandrung goes out on her own or starts her own group. Prima donnas earn more on their own than the usual fee of Rp 50,000 for one performance.

Asmawati, who became a prima donna in 1992 before setting up her own group, is still active as a prima donna. For her group, she employs four young and beautiful gandrung dancers.

But there is no studio for training the gandrung, mostly high school graduates. The dance itself requires no specific theory. To be a prima donna, a dancer needs only flexibility in her body movements, deftness in wooing people and daring to appear different.

Once a woman is involved in the art of gandrung, it is hard for her to give it up, as she indirectly fosters her own spiritual world -- an illusionary world full of glamor that becomes a source of her creativity on stage. One month with a gandrung group guarantees that a dancer will have the courage to appear on stage.

In reality, gandrung life in the community is not as rosy as imagined in the dancer's thoughts. It is no wonder that many of them resign and complain about one-night stands with the paju, which later affect the credibility of the gandrung in the community.

Most gandrung who try to raise families either fail or their marriages end in divorce, just as experienced by former prima donna Rodianah, 39, who retired five years ago. This divorcee with one child is now a teak wood supplier to Bali.

When she was a dancer, Rodianah tried hard to have a family, but during her marriage her dream of a glamorous life kept haunting her, making her husband abandon her.

"It never stops to amaze me why every former gandrung always fails to raise a family," Rodianah complained. She is from Gambiran, Banyuwangi.

The gandrung life is riskier compared to Reog Ponorogo, another popular traditional performance native to Ponorogo, East Java. The two performances are popular within the community, but there is a tendency to make gandrung the objects of sexual harassment while Reog Ponorogo's warok, a martial arts expert endowed with spiritual powers and the leader of the dance group, is known for keeping gemblak, young men who are usually the performers of the special jatil, or horse dance.

These two traditional cultural art forms should be maintained and developed professionally with the support of the community, without labeling them as lacking in morals. Besides, it is hoped that local cultural art institutes can participate in organizing and training them, helping gandrung to become professional dancers without having to face harassment.