Kind Of Java Dance

There are a great number of dances of the common people in Central Java. Those worth mentioning are the topeng dance, the kuda-kepang dance, the tledek dance and the katoprak dance-drama.

Among the Javanese classical dances which are now popular among the Javanese in particular and Indonesians in general, are the wayang wong, bekran and wireng or petilan. Those which are no longer so popular are the bedaya, srimpi and lawung,

Nowadays Javanese classical dancing, Surakarta style and Yogyakarta style, is well-cultivated by private, State, pupils and students and professional art organizations.

Javanese classical dance-dramas, Surakarta and Yogyakarta styles, which have developed rapidly since 1950, can be divided into two kinds, the dance-dramas with dialogue and those without. The term generally applied by the lovers of Javanese (lancing to the dance-drama with Javanese prose dialogue is still wayang wong, and to the one without dialogue, sendratari, an abbreviation of the words seni (art), drama (drama) and tari (dance). Javanese dance-dramas using tembang or singing as dialogue, are called langen driya and langen mandra wanara.

The stories presented by Javanese classical sendratari, are classical stories such as the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Panji stories, Gajahmada and Damarwulan.
On the island of Java there are two international theatres that perform sendratari, the Prambanan amphitheater in Central Java and the Pandaan amphiteater in East Java. Both theatres were set up to accomodate tourists both domestic and foreign, and the performances are held periodically during the dry season, from June through October.

The Prambanan amphitheater performs the Sendratari Ramayana and the Pandaan amhitheater performs the Sendratari Wilwatikta with stories of.Damarwulan, Gajahmada and other East Javanese stories.
There are also several professional organizations in Java which are active in the field of Javanese dance-drama. The only distinctive characteristic of these professional dance organizations is that they still use the old term wayang wong in referring to Javanese dance- drama, even in their names. In Java there are three large professional companies, the Wayang Wong Sriwedari in Surakarta, Wayang Wong Ngesti Pandawa in Semarang and Wayang Wong Cipta Kawedar in Malang. In addition to holding performances in their own cities, these three dance companies go on tours to perform in various towns in Java. It is also worth knowing that all three wayang wong companies use Surakarta style dancing, and often perform fragments of the two epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. The fragments of the two epics Which can be performed as complete performances are called lakons. The lakons from the epic Ramayana as a rule are largely derived from the original story of the Indian Ramayana, though there are alterations here and there to suit the taste of the Javanese society.

The lakons from the epic Mahabharata deviate much more from the original Indian epic such as the lakons Srikandi Ngedan (The Mad Srikandi), and Petruk Daa'i Ratu (Petruk Becomes King), but there are still many based on the original epic, such as the lakons Karna Tanding (The Death of Karna) and Patine Prabu Salya (The Death of Salya).
Following is a fuller explanation of examples of Javanese dance-dramas.

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