The Harmony in Saman Will Never Die
For the people in Gayo Lues regency, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, the Saman dance is more than just art. It is a cultural identity. Their love for the Saman dance, a local ancestral legacy, remains deep until today. In their hands, the harmony in Saman will never die.
This was evident at the Seribu Bukit Stadium in Blangkejeren city, Gayo Lues, on Sunday Aug. 13. A colossal Saman dance involving 12,262 dancers under the theme of “Saman Pengawal Leuser” (Saman, the Guardian of Leuser) attracted tens of thousands of locals to the stadium. The place turned into an ocean of people.
From the morning, locals filled the tribunes and the edges of the field. They came from remote villages in Gay Lues by hitching rides on pickup trucks and private cars.
On the field, 12,262 dancers, ranging from elementary schoolboys to adult males, stood in lines. They wore uniforms with the kerawang gayo motif – a traditional Gayo Lues outfit. On the chest and arms, there were orange, black and yellow lines. On each line, there were unique pictures of bamboo shoots or straps. The unique ornaments reflected the highly artistic spirit of the Gayo people.
Yellow fabrics were wrapped on the dancers’ right arms. They wore red headwear with a bamboo shoot motif called teleng and pandan leaves on the left side of the teleng.
On the front-most line, there were 15 dancers acting as syeh or leaders. They were all senior dancers who have performed on stage all over the world.
The colossal dance was opened with the reading of a poem filled with praises to God. The poem was in the Gayo language. As the syeh sang the poem, thousands of the dancers bent their body backward and then forward in unison.
The audience applauded thunderously. The white fog looked calm over the hills in Gayo as the dancers took off their teleng and put them on the grass. The audience moved closer to the dancers.
Their next move was jaw-dropping. They clapped their hands on their thighs and chests and looked sideways to the right and to the left. At first, the movements were slow but then it became faster and faster before slowing down again.
The Saman dance is often called the dance of the thousand hands, as it mostly involves hand movements. Despite dancing together in a tight space, the dancers never bumped into each other.
Saman dancers bumping into each other in a performance is practically unheard of. They move dynamically. The moves reflect the Gayo people’s efforts to maintain togetherness and avoid conflicts in their daily life.
Spreading goodness
The book Saman Kesenian dari Gayo (Saman, the Art of Gayo) published by the Education and Culture Ministry in 2004 cited a Gayo traditional art form called pokane as the predecessor of the Saman dance. Pokane is the movement of clapping your hands to your chest and thighs while singing joyfully.
A local cleric Syeh Saman used the dance to spread Islam. He filled the lyrics with praise to God and advice. The dance became an effective medium to spread good values. Since then, pokane has been called Saman.
Syeh and Saman trainer Syarifuddin said that each movement in the Saman dance had its own meaning. The surang saring movement, for instance, where dancers moved their body upward on an odd-number count and downward on an even-number count, meant harmony in differences.
According to Syarifuddin, Saman is still a medium to spread goodness today. At the colossal Saman performance, the lyrics the dancers sang were about a campaign to save Leuser, a natural forest and a world heritage in Gayo Lues.
For the GayoLues people, Saman is part of the local identity. Boys in Gayo Lues learn Saman from elementary school so that the spirit of Saman grows within them as they grow up. “It is a shame if we cannot dance the Saman,” said Blangkejeren local Deri Adrian, 35. He was among the dancers in the colossal Saman dance and learned the dance when he was in elementary school.
Every village in Gayo Lues has its own Saman dance group. The dance will be performed during special occasions, such as Independence Day. On that day, a Saman dance competition between villages is held.
Therefore, practicing for the colossal Saman dance took only a week. This is despite the dance involving more than 10,000 dancers from 154 villages in Gayo Lues. The practice was needed only to unify the movements. Gayo Lues people residing in other regencies in Aceh also sent dancers.
World heritage
It is unsurprising that, in 2011, the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared Saman an intangible part of world heritage.
Gayo Lues regent Ibnu Hasyim said that, other than being a part of the Gayo Lues identity and a cultural heritage, the Saman dance also unified Gayo people. The Saman dance reflects the Gayo Lues social life, in which brotherhood is upheld.
“The movements in Saman are beautiful, harmonious and energetic. It should serve as the spirit of managing the nation,” said Ibnu, who pledged to preserve the Saman.
Education and Culture Ministry director general of culture Hilmar Farid said that the colossal Saman dance was the result of locals’ love for their culture.
Hilmar said that the preservation of the Saman dance was supported by the presence of dance studios in villages, where locals keep local culture alive. “This is what we mean by a cultural institution. In the future, the studios must be better managed,” Hilmar said.
According to Hilmar, Saman must be promoted in the national creative industry. It must not be only about the performances but must also boosting the local economy. Such a massive performance, he said, was worthy of international events.
The colossal Saman dance was 30 minutes long but time went by quickly during the performance. As the dance ended, there was pride on the faces of the dancers and the audience.
At noon, the tens of thousands of the dancers and audience went home. From the top of pickup trucks, locals waved to one another, signifying closeness and brotherhood. The spirit of the Saman burns in their soul.