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.