Page 3 | Central Javanese Dance - an introduction

Character types

Contents

Central Javanese Dance - an introduction (1)

Dance types (2)

Character types (3)

Tradition and today (4)

Glossary

The following are the literal translations of some of the terms used in this article

alus refined

gagah coarse/more aggressive

beksan dance (Javanese)

tari dance (Indonesian)

putri female

putra male

wayang narrative performance

Seleh Notes Volume 6 Number 1 November 1998

© Jo Shaw

The other common way of dividing dances is into the three movement styles of putri, alus and gagah already mentioned above.

This is the simplest categorisation as differences in style are easy to distinguish.

Tari putri
Tari putri is dancing for women, and epitomises the desirable feminine characteristics (in Java!) of humility, gentleness and grace.

The feet are kept close together within the restricting floor length kain, the knees are bent and the weight sways gracefully from one foot to the other.

The upper arms are never raised more that a few inches from the side of the body, keeping the hands around waist height (except for some kiprahan movements depicting putting on make up, dressing hair etc) because in Java the armpit is considered to be an erotic part of the body (one to remember, ladies).

The eyes will generally be downcast, and the facial expression is constant, serene and verging on the smug.

There are various positions for the hands, often involving a sharp angle of the wrist, for example ngrayung and ngithing, which combine (top and bottom respectively) in the position panggel (see below).

Tari alus

Tari alus could be described as the male equivalent of tari putri. The main difference (apart from the fact that it is a male character, if not dancer) is the stance of the feet, which are slightly further apart.

The knees are more obviously turned out and deeply bent, and movement of the weight is more obvious as the steps are larger although the feet rarely leave the floor.

The arms are raised to about a 45 degree angle to the body. Some of the basic movements are the same as for tari putri, on a slightly larger scale, and the hand positions are similar.

The movement pattern is smooth and continuous, aiming for a constant impression of graceful motion, like waves on water. The standing position, tanjak (illustrated), shows the basics of the body posture.

Tari gagah
Tari gagah is the other male style for less refined characters, such as ogres or wicked kings.

Very few characters are totally one or the other, and will demonstrate elements of both types while clearly primarily alus or gagah.

The clearest indication is the posture which in the latter style is more aggressive, with the feet wide apart and knees very bent.

The feet leave the floor as the knee is lifted to right angles to the floor, corresponding to higher arm positions.

The arms are often lifted to shoulder height and the hand movements are not as fine; the head is lifted, the eyes look boldly around, and the expression may be fierce.

Everything is bigger, and although many of the movements are the same (e.g. lumaksana, sabetan, srisig) they are more extended and on a larger scale.

This picture shows a gagah character part way through the sabetan movement, in a typical pose.

 

 

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