Jatilan

A few days ago I was invited to attend a Jatilan, which is a traditional dance here in Java. Sometimes it is also called a Kuda Kepang dance, after the horse puppets that are used as props.

Here are some pictures from the event, along with the best explanations I received. Most of the proceedings were in Javanese, so I couldn't get everything. I also took some videos, but as I am fairly unaware of video sharing methods on the internet, you'll just have to trust me on that.

Jatilan is a dance for a number of occasions. Weddings and birthdays being popular reasons for the event. It employs an entire dance troop.
 
I snuck into the dressing room to take some pictures... Well, there was no real sneaking. A 6-foot tall white guy can't actually sneak anywhere in Indonesia.

These two kids told me they had practiced the dance for 6 months prior to being able to perform it. 

The dance is accompanied by live music - traditional instraments in this case combined with a modern drum set.

The dance begins as warriors on (pretend) horseback enter the arena. They join a number of stylistic battles, wielding short swords.

After a short time the warriors rest, and a series of monsters take the stage.

The monsters engage in a dance as the tempo and tone of the music changes.

Once the monster dance is over, they relinquish their masks. Then the master of ceremonies enters atop a massive horse, led by his servant.

The big man and his servant then perform a comedic dialogue (in Javanese, which I don't speak). From what I did understand they were joking about the neighborhood and the man whose birthday we were celebrating.

After the master leaves, a man possessed by the spirit of a wild boar rushes into the arena, bowling over all the warriors and monsters. He dives into a mud pit and then continues to run through the crowd and get people dirty with his mud-splashing.

The dancers then enter a trance.

They keep dancing and dancing, only pausing briefly to take a drink or eat some watermelon or receive gifts from the audience. They cannot use their hands, though, so their mouths are their only tools (notice the bag of treats this dancer picked up somewhere).

The dance continues, and the dancers fall deeper into the trance. The leader of the dance troop has to pick them off one-by-one and forcibly relieve them from the trance using a series of touches.

All the while the pig man is wandering through the crowd, terrorizing adults and children alike.

The number of dancers dwindles as they are released from the trance and carried off.

Finally only the pig man is left; after he is overpowered and released from his trance, the event ends.

In this case the dance was performed for someone's birthday. According to the people I talked do, wealthy Javanese families will often arrange these events for big occasions. They are considered a gift to the community, as all the people in the neighborhood are invited to attend and watch.

The dance troop solicited me to put on a performance. Apparently it costs 3 million rupiah for one performance (about $325). I told them I'd have to think about it.

Later my friend informed me that the Jatilan traditions are slowly dying out. There are only a few groups remaining in Yogyakarta that perform the dance, and their work is not regular. As time marches on, traditional events such as this are often passed by.


Kind of sad. I think they should set up a performance like those in Bali, which are put on for tourists on a regular schedule.