Sacred 'Seblang' dance, a ritual of contrasts

BANYUWANGI, East Java (JP): In the culturally rich regency of Banyuwangi, Seblang, a sacred dance ritual performed by an entranced dancer, stands out as a unique weave of contrasts.

It consists of Hindu rituals but opens with an Islamic prayer. It is a ritual dance, but none of its movements describe the relationship between humans and god. The dancers are either virgin teenagers or women over 80 years old.

"Normally songs or prayers in any religious rite portray the relationship between humans and their Creator. But not Seblang," said Hasan Ali, an historian, artist and linguist who heads the Blambangan Arts Council Advisory Board. Blambangan refers to the name of an ancient kingdom which sat astride the land now known as Banyuwangi regency.

The dance was initially staged when residents of any village in the area wanted to make a vow, but it is now only organized by groups in Olehsari and the neighboring village of Bakungan, four kilometers west of Banyuwangi, and a belief is now held that Seblang cannot be performed outside these two places.

In Olehsari, the dance is now performed by a virgin teenager each year after the Idul Fitri holiday. The performance lasts for three hours a day over a seven-day period. In Bakungan, the dance is performed at night by a woman over 80 years old after Idul Adha, which marks the end of the Haj pilgrimage.

Villagers believe 44 spirits and genies residing in the village guide the dancer's body during the performance. As with many of her predecessors, this year's Seblang dancer in Olehsari, Linda Astuti, 16, is not a skilled dancer.

A new dancer is appointed every three years, but only after consultations with a talking genie who possesses the body of a local resident one week before the ritual. The dancer must always be a descendant of Mak Milah, the woman believed to have been the first Seblang dancer.

To begin the dance, the village head reads a passage from the Koran and prayers are held for the safety and prosperity of the village.

The dancer then dons a colorful headdress made from a young banana leaf and flowers. She wears a different dress on each of the seven days of the performance and holds a rounded bamboo tray in her hands. A village elder clad in the black attire of a witch doctor lights some incense sticks and invites a genie to enter the dancer's body. The bamboo tray falls to the floor once the dancer is entranced.

Eyes closed, she moves to the tune of a simple score played by two sarons, a kendang, two gongs, one peking and the voices of a choir of female sindens. She dances around the stage under the guidance of two old women and takes a one minute break between the 28 songs in the program.

Her movement is reminiscent of Gandrung, a more popular dance in the Banyuwangi area. Ali said the two dances influenced each other heavily as they evolved.

The origins of Seblang are not clear. "We are poorly endowed with written references and prefer oral works of literature," Ali said, adding that a Dutch administrator named Th. Pigeaud made a passing reference to the dance in papers published in 1770.

Ali, who studied history and has pieced together events surrounding the founding of Banyuwangi, said Seblang might have been born out of local resistance to Dutch rule.

"It is a ritual but some people see this as camouflage for their struggle," Ali said.

A clear example is Seblang Lukinto, which reads:

The sun has risen in the east/ Awake from your sleep/ Time for cocks crowing,

Guards standing at the gate/ Slip through the back door,

You used to lead the young/ Out one step and return

"The last line can be interpreted as a reference to guerrilla warfare, strike and retreat, strike and retreat," Ali said. However, the song also alludes to adultery and its roots may never be known.

"This shows how skilled the composer was," said Ali, who is the father of popular singer Emilia Contessa.

Residents of Olehsari believe their village will be struck by plague and suffer crop failure if they fail to perform the Seblang, but that may just be a myth put about by their forefather to perpetuate the ritual. Let's hope we never find out.