`Tayub' dance moves with the times

`Tayub' dance moves with the times

Singgir Kartana, Contributor, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta

Exoticism, sex and the hint of prostitution are three things
which make the traditional tayub dance popular, but at the same
time have tainted it with a negative image.

Residents living in rural areas in the provinces of Yogyakarta
and Central Java believe tayub dancers, all female, bring them
good luck.

Dancers of Lebdo Rini, one of the few tayub dance groups here,
were once surprised when a group of mothers turned up at a
concert in Dlingo, Bantul regency to ask the dancers to kiss
their babies. They believed the kiss had the power to bestow good
health and ensure the children were good people when they grew
up.

A unique experience also happened when the group was
performing in a village in Wonosobo regency, Central Java. A
group of farmers carrying ropes they usually used to tie up their
animals, entered the concert venue to ask the dancers to give
them face powder, which the dancers applied to their faces.

"They then rubbed the powder into the rope, believing it would
free their animals from diseases and give them plenty of
offspring," Lebdo Rini's head Tarwanto said at the group's base
in Kweni, Karangsari village, Gunungkidul regency.

Superstition benefits the group and helps ensure the survival
of the dance, which is regularly performed at traditional
rituals.

"In the past months we have hardly had any rest because we
received numerous orders to perform in many different villages
during traditional rituals," Tarwanto said.

Cultural expert Suryanto Sastroatmojo said the mix of magical
and artistic elements in tayub dance had been there since it
first appeared in around the 9th or 10th century during the time
of the Mataram Kingdom under the rule of the Sanjaya dynasty. He
said that tayub was first performed by priests in temples to
worship gods and goddesses.

As a ritual, tayub is always accompanied by drinking and
ngibing (dancing) activities where the male spectators join the
dancers and place money inside the tayub dancers' bras.

This particular part of the performance has created a negative
image of the dance, past performances of which were often banned
by authorities who saw the dancers as prostitutes.

Some books and novels like trilogy Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (Dukuh
Paruk Dancer) describes how a tayub dancer is very close to the
world of prostitution. Srintil, the trilogy's main character, for
instance, sells her virginity to the highest bidder during the
buka kelambu (raise the curtain) ritual before she becomes a
dancer. The classic manuscript Serat Centini also describes
similar things about the tayub dance.

Suryanto said there was a big difference between the past and
present dance. In the past, spectators got drunk while dancing
because of its magical influence.

"It explains why in the past, the dancing spectators were not
allowed to touch the dancers. But today, the spectators tend to
be sexually motivated," he said.

As a show, the dance has developed into a more entertaining
performance than ritually fulfilling its pakem, or original
guidelines.

Lebdo Rini, for instance, blends its music with modern and
popular ones, like campursari, a mixture of traditional and
modern music, and dangdut (a popular local music with strong
Arab/Indian influences), to satisfy its customers.

In the show, the presence of modern musical instruments like
guitars, keyboards, drums and even saxophones are no longer
considered strange.

The dancers are not only required to master the traditional
tayub dances and songs of Gambyong, Pangkur, Ayun-Ayun, Jongkerem
and Cangklek but also have to master modern dances and songs.

"We also try hard to keep a clean show by not allowing drunk
spectators to join the dancing in the arena. We also require them
to place money for the dancers on a prepared box instead of
placing it inside the dancers' bras," Tarwanto said.

Lebdo Rini, which was set up in 1994, now has eight dancers
and 17 musicians. For a single performance of two to three hours,
the group charges Rp 1 million to Rp 2 million.

Besides performing all across Yogyakarta, it receives many
invitations to perform outside the province, going as far as
the Central Java towns of Gombong, Surakarta and Wonosobo, and
the East Java town of Pacitan.

In 1998 it represented Yogyakarta during a tayub dance
performance in Taman Mini Indonesia in East Jakarta and took part
in the making of renowned local film Ponirah Terpidana (Ponirah
the Accused).