ART
The Performing Arts
The graceful court and temple dances to charming folk dances and boisterous play, the performing arts of Indonesia offer an astounding range of types and styles for the visitor to study and enjoy, reflecting, as they do, the soul and traditions of the various ethnic groups who support them. Music, dance and drama are very often intertwined, such as the ludruk transvestite theater of East Java and the lenong folk theater of Jakarta, both known also for their slapstick humor and early Shakespearean simplicity on their stage settings. An important from of indigenous theater is the puppets play, of which the most celebrated is the wayang kulit shadow play of Java where the characters are represented by the shadows of intricately carved and painted flat leather puppets, cast on a screen with the help of a torch(nowadays often substituted by an electric bulb).
The puppet theater has many forms and employs a variety of media. In West Java, for example, the most popular form is the Wayang Golek, using carved and painted three dimensional wooden puppets. Both the Wayang Kulit and Wayang Golek take their repertoire from the classical Indian epics but in Central Java, The wooden puppet theater traditionally brings only stories derived from popular folk legends revolving around the spread of Islam. There are other forms still alive today, such as the Wayang Klitik and Wayang Kruci, each having its own standard repertoire.
The oldest form of "shadow" play is probably the Wayang Beber, in which the dalang of puppeteer simply unrolls a scroll bearing the scene's and figures of the story while he delivers his narration accompanied by a gamelan orchestra. A popular contemporary form of wayang thetare is the Wayang Wong, is which actors or dancers represent the characters in the story which is presented on a conventional stage.
Javanese Classical Dances
Instruction classes are open to visitors and are held in several princely homes in Yogyakarta and Surakarta as well as in the courts (karton) themselves. Two well-known institutions in Yogyakarta are the Krido Bekso Wiromo and the Mardawa Bydoyo dnace schools. Mardawa Budoyo has at the time of the writing, four performances a week at the Ramyaana ballet in Yogya, courts style, each performance presenting a different episode of the story. the Solonese princely court of Mangkunegaran is famed or its performances of langendriyan, which combines opera and dance based on stories from the (east) Janavese panji folk legends.
There are two leading names in staging spectacular traditional dance ballets on a regular basis. One is the Prambanan open air stage near Yogyakarta, where, between June and October during nights of the full moon, performances are given of the Ramayana ballets. the other one, approximately around the same time, performances of the classical Javanese ballets are held on the Candra Wilwtika open air stage at Pandaan in East Java, with stories taken from the popular East Javanese folk legends. In both case the setting accentuated the dramas. The first case is the Shivaite Prambanan temple complex and the volcano Merapi, and the second is the district contours of colcanoes.
Wayang Wong
The Wayang Wang is a popular of the theatrical dance drama taking its repertoire either the Mahabharata or Ramayana. this kind of theater, more folk than classic, places mores stress on the plot, which unfolds through long dialogues, rather than a dance. It is often performed nightly at the People's Recreation Park (THR-s) found in Java's big cities and Panca Murthi in Jakarta.
Ketoprak
An offshoot of the wayang wong theater, Ketoprak is the contemporary popular version of dance drama which takes its stories from the classical epics. Costumes, dialogues and dance, are much simpler than those at the wayang wong.
Music
Musical traditions are as diverse as the population, but the one musical expression best known and most widely associated with the country is probably the gamelan.
A complete gamelan orchestra may consist of as many as eight instruments, the largest part comprising various types and sizes of metal percussion instruments. Drums, a zither (celempung), a rebab two-stringed upright lute, a flute and often a few other instruments complete the ensemble. Although there are variations known within each, the gamelan orchestra is basically tuned to two systems, the old pentatonic, slendro and the younger seventone pelog, each producing, its own mood and having its own uses in the musical or the artical repertoire. The creation of moods or "color" is further archived by the use of three principal modes (pathet) within each turning system. The most elaborate form of gamelan is that of Central Java (Yogyakarta and Surakarta). West Java has its own gamelan ensemble, usually simpler than the Javanese with more stress on flute, drums and the bonang family of horizontally placed kettle gongs. But the most brilliant is that of Bali, where sets of "male" and "female" megalophones produce that beautiful timbre associated with the Balinese gamelan. In much more simple forms, the "gamelan" is also known in other islands of Indonesia, from the southern Sumatra to Sulawesi and Kalimantan.
Gamelan
Performances of Javanese gamelan can be heard every sunday in the Kraton of Yogyakarta. The Central Museum in Jakarta has performances of Sundanese (West Javanese) gamelan every Sunday morning. Javanese gamelan also accompanies the shortened wayang kulit performances given at the Wayang Museum in Jakarta every Sunday morning.
Balinese Dance
Regular performances of the popular dances such as the legong kraton, the barong kris and the baris dances, are easily found throughout Bali. They are usually staged for tourists by the village people. The kecak is performed at night by torch light. Nowadays, even some of the formerly sacral dances, such as the fire dance, are often performed nightly for tourists notably at Kuta and Sunar beach.