'Rampai Aceh' explodes onto Jakarta stage

'Rampai Aceh' explodes onto Jakarta stage

Eva C Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There was no music -- just foot thumping and hand clapping from
14 dancers pounding out the rhythm of the Rampai Aceh dance,
while the dance leader at the edge of the stage continuously
shouted out poetry in the Acehnese language.

The dancers, clad in bright-colored shirts and black pants,
with shawls draped around their shoulders and shiny gold-colored
sarongs over the pants, began with movements reminiscent of
ritual Muslim praying.

Then the rhythm picked up and the dancers began hopping around
on the stage, making a series of hand gestures, somewhat slow at
the beginning but getting faster and faster as the leader sang
more quickly and more loudly.

When the dancers sat in a row, the audience watching the
"Celebrating Indonesia" traditional dance and music festival at
Plaza Senayan began to cheer, knowing that the most complicated
and extraordinary part of the dance was about to start.

The dancers, with two men on each end and 10 women between
them, began to slowly and rhythmically clap hands. They
alternated between slapping their own two hands together and
slapping the hands of the dancers next to them.

The dancers then added a bowing movement, forward and backward
while they were sitting on the stage, gesticulating with their
hands to the side as the pace of the movements picked up.

As the rhythm reached a crescendo, the audience began cheering
and applauding wildly.

"It is amazing how they can dance so fast and yet their
movements are all precise," said one spectator at Plaza Senayan
while still gazing mesmerized at the performance.

The 20-minute dance is a combination of three dynamic
traditional Aceh dances, the Seudati, Ratoh Saman, and Pho. Thus,
it is named Rampai Aceh, which means various dances from Aceh.

"Actually, the Rampai Aceh has been modified from the original
dances but it still carries the essence of the traditional Aceh
dances themselves," said Marzuki Hasan, the group leader, who is
also a lecturer in Acehnese Performing Arts at the Jakarta Arts
Institute (IKJ).

"The poetry, sung continuously during the dance, consists of a
greeting to the audience at first, then a request for forgiveness
if there are things that will be unpleasant for them, while the
rest are messages on faith in God and prayer, and also some
pantun (traditional poetry) about social relationships," Marzuki
said.

Marzuki further explained that there was no instrumental
accompaniment because music is already inherent in ourselves.
With the hand clapping and foot stamping, the dancers could
already feel the rhythm. He also said that the dancers should
feel relaxed throughout the dance as it really needed a lot of
concentration to perform such difficult moves.

Marzuki said that in Aceh, dance competitions were often held
among villagers. They started around 7 p.m. (after the evening
Isya' prayer) and ended around 4:30 a.m. (before the Subuh
prayer). Even today, these dances are still performed on many
occasions in Aceh, despite the war going on in the province.

Like most Aceh traditional dances, the three dances are
influenced by Islam. Even the province, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam,
is nicknamed Serambi Mekah (the garden of the Mecca). The dances
were originally meant to spread Islam, as can be seen by
their moves and the songs used with them, but now they serve as
entertainment.

Marzuki added that the Rampai Aceh dance was usually performed
by at least eight people in order to make it beautiful,
especially for the Saman dance part where the dancers have to sit
in a row and do the complicated hand gestures. It does not matter
whether the dancers are all men, or all women, or mixed. The
bigger the stage is, the more the dancers that can perform.

He added that the dancers, all of them from the IKJ Dance
Company, had a minimum of three or four years experience. It took
a lot of time to learn the complicated dance moves, and to really
feel the rhythm and the soul of the dance. He himself had been
involved in Aceh Performing Arts since the 1970s.

Besides the professional dancers, high school students from
SMKN 27 Jakarta also performed the Rampai Aceh dance at the
festival on Oct. 11. Despite having only nine months of practice,
the 15 girls performed quite well.

The SMKN 27 Inter-School Students Organization's supervisor,
Mohamad Syahrir, said that the school ran a dance workshop as an
extracurricular activity for the students.

"It is a part of the Jakarta Arts Council's (DKJ) program to
introduce traditional arts to students, and enhance their
appreciation of them. The DKJ also provides dance and music
instructors for the high schools chosen for the program," said
Syahrir.

"Many students are really interested in joining this dance
workshop as an extracurricular activity in our school.
Unfortunately we cannot pick them all, so we held auditions to
select the best," he said.

With the young generation getting interested in learning
traditional dances and music, there is still hope of preserving
traditional culture. As Marzuki said, "The members of the younger
generation have to appreciate their culture because if they
don't, who else will?"