Hi guys, it is Ishani here reporting live from my room in Bennet. How has your week been going? My week has been busier than usual, but overall a pretty great week. The weather has been nice and sunny, unlike last week which is really nice. Do you know what I am in the mood to talk about? Dance, specifically how dance relates to our society and culture. I remember when I was in elementary school and my parents signed my sister and me up for Indian dance lessons. I went to a dance studio around 10 minutes from where I live. I learned all types of dances like Bollywood, Raas, Bharatanatyam, and Kathak. Bollywood and Raas are more fun, fast-paced, and similar to jazz and hip hop, while Bharat Natyam and Kathak are classical dances. I enjoyed learning Bollywood style dances the most and Bharatnatyam the worst. I remember I would get constantly critiqued about my technique and posture by my teacher. She would tell me, “Bend your knees more, or you aren’t going fast enough,“ To be honest, it was embarrassing and I eventually quit and decided to play soccer instead. A couple of things I learned from that experience of learning these different styles of Indian dance is learning more about my culture through the music, costumes, and dance movements. I also learned more about self-discipline and storytelling with my body language and facial expressions.
Now here I am, a freshman in college taking an Indonesian dance and culture class. I found it really interesting that Indonesian dance was influenced by Hindu-Buddhism culture. The specific Indonesian dances we have been learning in class is Javanese court dance.
The dance I have been focused on learning about is the female Javanese court dance, Srimpi Mondorini. A court dance is performed before royalty and is the most prestigious style of dance. When I first started learning it, it felt weird as I was going through the movements with my body because I wasn’t used to moving my body like that. It felt restricting and felt similar to Bharat Natyam. The dance is very slow and didn’t realize how fluid my movements would have to be at a slow pace. It is definitely harder than it looks. The dance has more soft and gentle movements. My favorite part about learning the dance was learning the different hand gestures because initially it didn’t feel awkward on my hand and it looked very pretty. I also used this scarf-like object, a sampur, that I would tie around my waist. As I practiced the dance more, my body and my mind got used to the movements. When learning Srimpi Mondorini, my professor would teach us the steps in parts and would repeat the steps numerous times and would correct us. I found it interesting that teachers in Indonesia typically don’t correct their students while practicing dances. Even during my Indian dance lessons, I would be corrected if I made a mistake.
The next style of dance I did a workshop on was Lengger. This style was really fun to dance to because it was really fast-paced and used hip movements, which was really different from the Srimpi Mondorini dance. This dance also felt different on my body because it incorporated different dance movements than what I have been used to dancing to. There were movements using my hips, shoulders, and legs like my foot came off the floor into the air for a moment. This dance felt like my body had more freedom and less restriction. Lengger is a dance where a male dresses and performs the role of a female. Rianto is an internationally renowned dancer who led the Lengger dance workshop. Rianto said when he was a kid, he was considered a problematic child because he liked to move his body and play with girls, instead of playing outside with the boys. He identifies himself as non-binary which means he wants his masculine and feminine elements to coexist. The Lengger dance merges masculinity and femininity. Rianto thinks it’s important for our bodies to experience the fusion between masculinity and femininity as it is good for the spirituality within our bodies. This dance was not accepted in society because it doesn’t fit the gender norms of a male dressing like a female. I think it is great that this dance goes beyond the societal norms and breaks the barrier between maleness and femaleness, especially in a society that likes to have a distinct boundary between genders.
I find it interesting how different the Srimpi Mondorini dance and the Lengger dance are from each other. The Srimpi Mondorini is a female dance that portrays women as gentle, quiet, and submissive because of the soft movements. In the New Order era, under the rule of Suharto, the second president of Indonesia, he was very controlling and wanted to reconstruct the society of Indonesia. One thing he wanted was to change was the image of women and portray them as submissive and quiet housewives. The Srimpi Mondorini would be approved under the New Order era because of the feminine appearance and movements, but the Lengger dance would not be approved because it blurs the gender boundaries and Suharto would not approve of that.
Thinking back to when I was getting ready for my Indian dance competitions, I would have to put on a top and a skirt and put makeup on, to make myself look more “feminine” while the boys would just have to put on leggings and a long-sleeved shirt to make themselves look “masculine”. The Indian culture also has very distinct gender boundaries.
Overall, I really enjoyed dancing to the Srimpi Mondorini and Lengger dances. I am glad that my body got to experience these different dance movements. I hope you guys enjoyed my podcast. Have an amazing day. Bye!
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