Surakarta Laymen Take Care of Culture

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

Two women perform Pendet Dance in a performance at the pavilion of Sanggar Semarak Candrakirana in Kerten Village, Laweyan District, Surakarta City, Central Java, Monday (15/3/2021).

Since before the Covid-19 pandemic, while some people hang out for coffee in the afternoon, a number of mothers and young people in Surakarta have been engrossed in a tradition. They are not artists but laypeople who do art for the sake of inner indulgence.

Three female dancers entered the stage carrying a bowl filled with flowers. Once they reached the middle of the stage, they turned around and did head movements to Balinese music. Smiles beamed on their somewhat tense faces.

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A total of 14 female dancers, Monday (15/3/2021) night, performed a pendet dance from Bali. They took turns in five different groups. Appearing in complete costumes and make-up, they looked like professional dancers. In fact, they are mothers who dance as a hobby. Once a week, they practice dance at Sanggar Semarak Candrakirana, a dance studio at Kerten village, Laweyan district, Surakarta, Central Java.

"We are not dancers. We just want to dance. So the movements are just there. The important thing is that we have confidence,” said Patricia Yunita Trisnawati (43), who is a facilitator of a government program.

She said that the activities of mothers learning to dance at the studio began in 2019. Initially, they would go to the studio just to take their children to learn to dance. However, getting used to seeing the children practicing, they began to grow their own interest in it.

Over time, the number grew to 20 people, aged between 29 and 60 years.

The dance practice group initially only had six people. Over time, the number grew to 20 people, aged between 29 and 60 years. Half of them are housewives, some others workers.

They have been learning four traditional dances – lancang kuning, rara ngigel, gambyong, pendet. Each dance needed several months to practice. After completing learning a dance, they would perform their skills in a stage show, which they organized themselves.

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Diah Citaresmi, a 47-year-old housewife, said she had actually taken dance since childhood up to adolescence at a studio and school before abandoning it after getting married. Her passion was reignited as she often took her son to practice at Sanggar Semarak Candrakirana.

"Now, my son does not attend practice anymore because he has other activities. It’s me who still goes now,” she said.

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

Three women perform Pendet Dance at the pavilion of Sanggar Semarak Candrakirana in Kerten Village, Laweyan District, Surakarta City, Central Java, Monday (15/3/2021).

For Diah, dancing rehearsal benefits her, not only in terms of exercise but mindfulness by virtue of memorizing a lot of movements.

"Personally, I also have a motivation to take part in preserving Nusantara [national] culture," she said.

Dance instructor Indah Sri Laksito Ningrum (42), said due to their ages, training for mothers was adjusted to their physical condition.

As opposed to younger dancers, the mothers are not made to do certain movements, depending on their physical ability.

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“Most of the mothers involved in this dance practice are 40 years or over. So, there is no compulsion for them. I show the movements of a dance. If they cannot do it, I show an easier way to do the movement,” she said.

Karawitan

About 7 kilometers to the southeast of Sanggar Semarak Candrakirana, at Kusumodilagan hamlet, Joyosuran village, Pasar Kliwon district, a number of young people are active in a traditional art, also as a hobby.

Members of the Kusuma Laras Muda group routinely practice karawitan (traditional music orchestra), and have performed at several stage shows.

Trainer Joko Daryanto (46) said the group\'s activities began around 2010 motivated by a desire to find a media for local youth to fill their spare time.

The youngsters, around 30 of them aged between 20 and 25 years, seem now to be more known than their seniors.

They found themselves acquainted more with a set of gamelan (Javanese music instruments) previously used by fathers. The youngsters, around 30 of them aged between 20 and 25 years, seem now to be more known than their seniors. They are either office employees or sellers.

Aware the youths somehow do not subscribe to Javanese conventional gending, Joko introduced more sophisticated music arrangements to draw their interest.

“Kusuma Laras Muda is now known as a karawitan group of young people. You could say it is the heavy metal of karawitan,” said Joko, who is also a lecturer at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta.

Taufik Wahyu Suryana (23) has been practicing karawitan since 2017.

A worker of Joyosuran subdistrict’s community protection unit, he began to nurture his interest when he frequently saw gamelan rehearsals.

"Because I often saw it, I was finally invited to practice the gamelan," he said.

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He first took part in a musical performance at the International Gamelan Festival in Surakarta in 2017.

“When I first performed, I was really nervous. I was erratic,” he said.

That did not hold him back. Instead, he became even more passionate about practicing karawitan with Kusuma Laras Muda.

KOMPAS/ERWIN EDHI PRASETYA

Darmasiswa alumnus, Peter Smith plays gamelan instruments at Pendopo Ageng, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Surakarta, Central Java, Monday (21/8/2017).

He appeared in a number of events such as the Solo Gamelan Festival at Benteng Vastenburg and Klenengan Selasa Legen 2019 at Soedjatmoko Hall, both in 2019.

Young people play gamelan as a hobby, not to earn money. However, they are sometimes tipped small money for their performance.

Soeracarta Heritage Society chairman Yunanto Sutyastomo attributed the art trend among young people partly to the existence of culture or art-related institutions such as Keraton Surakarta and Pura Mangkunegaran, the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) Surakarta and the Central Java Cultural Park (TBJT), the latter two are deemed to have further enlivened the art community.

Surakarta laypeople prove modern amenities have not distracted them from their subscription to local culture. Growing it initially as a hobby, they join as rowing members of the traditional civilization boat.

(This article was translated by Musthofid).