Page 4 | Teaching Javanese dance in schools

Mask and character work

Contents

An introduction (1)

Teaching dance in Indonesia (2)

A workshop model (3)

Mask and character work (4)

Costume (5)

Music appreciation and follow-up (6)

Seleh Notes Volume 9 Number 2 March 2002

© Gill Roberts

Photographs:
Felicity Drown
Gill Roberts

Javanese dance presents wonderful opportunities for exploring character and expression through movement.

I often introduce children to the basic iconography of mask dance (i.e. gentleness represented by narrow, downcast eyes, boldness by large round eyes, qualities of temperament represented by different colours, etc).

From there we look at the corresponding physicality of a mask or character (e.g. small, flowing steps for a gentle character, large vigorous ones for bold characters, etc), and perhaps revisit the warm-up sequence to experiment with it as different character types.

In Javanese dance the gender of the dancer does not always correspond to the gender of the character they are dancing.

I use this point to establish the idea that softness, boldness, grace or strength do not have to be linked to gender.

With young children I often focus on animal and bird movements, taking inspiration from the East Javanese mask dance, 'Bapang'.

Gillian Roberts models the Bapang mask

 

The Bapang mask has a bright pink or orange face, a wide grin and an extremely long nose, and the dance incorporates a wide variety of moves inspired by, among other things, the walk of an elephant swaying its trunk, a heron catching fish and a pelican cleaning its beak.

Young audiences have also spotted giraffes, crocodiles, chickens, ducks - and even an octopus, on occasion (octopi are in the eye of the beholder, I think).

With older children, I often go on to look at choreographing a dance which incorporates a fight or battle.

Fights are highly stylised in Javanese dance, and there is often little physical contact between opponents; so we get the best of both worlds here - violent, but safe!

Here too, we can look at the contrast between different movement styles (corresponding to Javanese alus and gagah).

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