'Kuda renggong' features horses of a different color

By YR Prahista

BANDUNG (JP): You can find horses pulling carts, carrying people and performing other menial tasks, while certain species of horses are bred and trained to race.

But in Sumedang, about 60 kilometers from Bandung, West Java, you can find horses of a different color. These horses are used in the kuda renggong, dancing horse, a traditional form of entertainment popular among locals.

The show is usually the highlight of holidays and other celebrations, including Independence Day, wedding parties and circumcision feasts.

It is called the dancing horse because during the performance a horse shows its skill in ngarenggong, a Sundanese word meaning "dancing".

Obviously, a horse dances differently from a human being since it certainly cannot undulate its body like a human dancer. But the horse can move to the rhythm of the accompanying percussion music, a feat few other animals can accomplish.

During the dance, the horse moves its body and steps like a marching soldier, while moving its head up and down, and its legs are stamped on the ground in rhythm to the traditional music. In this way, it appears as if the horse was dancing.

Some of the horses used in this performance may have other unusual skills as well, such as moving as if they were giving a martial arts demonstration.

The horses appear to be challenging their human counterparts when they raise their forelegs, looking as if they will strike their opponents. Hopping forward on their back legs, the forelegs move as if responding to a challenge posed by the human "opponents".

The horses taking part in such shows are usually raised by the Sumedang people and specially trained for this performance for four to six months.

"Some horses, however, can carry burdens and still be used in the kuda renggong," said Daca, a member of Laksana Palipur, a dancing horse group from Legok.

According to sources, Aki (Grandpa) Sipan of Cikurubuk village, Buahdua subdistrict, began the dancing horse tradition in 1910. "Aki Sipan had a strong affinity for his parents' horses ever since he was a child," said Sartam, the show's performer.

Aki Sipan, therefore, knew practically everything there was to know about horses, such as how a horse moved when walking and running or when making other rhythmically movements. So, Sipan secretly trained his parents' horses to move like they were dancing.

One day, he showed his dancing horses to a number of villagers in a show that was accompanied by traditional Sundanese music, the first show that made a name for himself with his kuda renggong. Him and his horses began to be invited to show their skills at circumcision feasts.

The shows soon spread to other places in Sumedang, and more and more locals began using their horses not to carry burdens but to dance.

A dancing horse is decorated with multicolored cloth and a variety of accessories and usually led by two men in black, who are the trainers, locally called pawang. When the dancing horses perform at a circumcision feast, the boy who is going to be circumcised sits on the horse.

To make the atmosphere more festive, traditional percussion instruments or the gamelan which accompanies the martial-arts performing horses are played by a number of nayaga, performers who are usually attired in costumes of strikingly bright colors.

As a traditional art, kuda renggong has now spread to almost all points in the Sumedang district with some 50 groups with a total of about 200 horses.

Head of the tourism service in Sumedang district, Ade Kiswaya, said this traditional art was a regional asset that could be used to boost tourism in the district. To this end, the Sumedang district held the annual 1999/2000 Kuda Renggong Festival on Sept. 11 featuring 36 kuda renggong arts groups from 10 subdistricts, 13 groups of martial-art horses and other traditional arts.

In terms of numbers, this year's festival was not as festive as previous ones. "One of the reasons is that the present economic crisis may have caused some kuda renggong groups to go under," Sartam said.

Whether a traditional arts group can survive very much depends on members of the community, who serve as its admirers and its source of livelihood.

Jajuli, the festival's participant, said a kuda renggong group was paid between Rp 250,000 and Rp 1,000,000 for a show. "It depends on the type of horses and the distance to be covered (to the performance)," he said.