Retno Maruti's difficult 'Srimpi Sangupati' staged

Retno Maruti's difficult 'Srimpi Sangupati' staged

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta, Central Java

After slowly entering the stage at the center of a large open structure, or audience hall, four dancers moved round a round table on which lay two glasses and a crystal decanter containing wine. Despite their suppleness, the dancers also demonstrated great intensity in their movements. Graceful yet full of a magic aura.

That was a scene from Srimpi Sangupati, a dance piece performed by Jakarta's Sanggar Padnecwara dance company, led by Retno Maruti, at the Indonesian Traditional Javanese music school in Surakarta on March 26. The four dancers were Retno Maruti, Rury Nostalgia, Yuni Trisapto and Watik.

Like other sacred dance pieces from the Surakarta palace, the piece performed this evening demanded intensity on the part of the dancers, in addition to their mastery of movement.

Not every dancer can adapt to the movements of palace dances, which require movements that tend to be monotonous and long in duration.

Retno Maruti is one of the few dancers devoting themselves to these traditional dance pieces. She set up her dance workshop, Sanggar Padnecwara, dozens of years ago in Jakarta as a laboratory for traditional dances, particularly those derived from classical Javanese dances.

Srimpi Sangupati was created by a sultan of Surakarta, Paku Buwono IV (1788-1820), and was originally called Srimpi Sang Apati, a dance dedicated for a sultan-to-be. Later, Paku Buwono IX (1861-1893) changed the name of the piece to Srimpi Sangupati, a dance meant to prepare one for death.

This choice of name may have had something to do with the Dutch colonial government's attempts at the time to put the coastal areas of Java under their rule.

Paku Buwono IX invited high-ranking officials from the Dutch colonial government to come to his palace for negotiations.

The Srimpi Sangupati dance was performed for the Dutch officials. Disguised as entertainment, the dance was actually a means to defeat the enemies. The dancers offered the wine, actually Javanese liquor, to the members of the Dutch delegation.

It was hoped the Dutch negotiators would get drunk and that the negotiations would end in favor of the sultan.

The dancers, really trained soldiers, also had guns hidden beneath their costumes in case the negotiations ended in favor of the Dutch.

For Retno, there was nothing extraordinary about performing the Srimpi Sangupati dance piece. She has danced many classical Javanese pieces and has created new pieces derived from classical Javanese dance or based on stories taken from the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Hilangnya Shinta, Damar Wulan, Suropati, Roro Mendhut and Dewabrata are some of the dance pieces she has created.

Retno Maruti's father was an artisan and a highly skilled gamelan player. When she was young, Retno also studied dance with the late Raden Tumenggung Kusumo Kesowo, a dance master from the Surakarta palace. She went on to join the Ramayana dance troupe in Prambanan.

As a youngster, Retno charmed Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, when she danced the role of a golden deer that seduces Dewi Shinta in a dance drama based on the Ramayana.

Her rich experience as a performer of classical Javanese dance pieces made her one of the few experts in this field. Modernization has become so dominant that today there are only a handful of people devoted to traditional dance.

Like other traditional dance performers and masters who are increasingly losing followers, Retno, who teaches at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts, has to face the reality that most of her students prefer contemporary and western dances like ballet.

However, just like her posture when performing palace dances, Retno Maruti's calmness, tenacity and patience in life have confirmed her position as a true doyen of classical Javanese dance.