seni tari

Dance in Indonesia (Indonesian: Tarian Indonesia) reflects the country's diversity of ethnicities and cultures. There are more than 700 ethnic groups in Indonesia: Austronesian roots and Melanesian tribal forms are visible, and influences ranging from neighboring Asian and even western styles through colonization. Each ethnic group has their own dances; makes total dances in Indonesia are more than 3000 Indonesian original dances. The old traditions of dance and drama are being preserved in the many dance schools which flourish not only in the courts but also in the modern, government-run or supervised art academies.^[1]
For classification purpose, the dances of Indonesia can be divided according to several aspects. In historical aspect it can be divided into three eras; the prehistoric-tribal era, the Hindu-Buddhist era and the era of Islam. According to its patrons, it can be divided into two genres; court dance and folk dance. In its tradition, Indonesian dances can be divided into two types; traditional dance and contemporary dance.
In Bali on November 19, 2011 UNESCO announced the traditional Saman dance from Aceh province as a world intangible cultural heritage. Saman dance is unique due to there are no music instrument accompany the dance and just only sing and clap their hands together to create harmony in movement and sound.^[2]

The Hindu-Buddhist Era

Lakshmana, Rama and Shinta in Ramayana ballet at Prambanan, Java.

With the advent of Dharmic religions in Indonesia, Hinduism and Buddhism were celebrated in ritual and in art. They incorporated stories of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also Panji cycles into dance-drama, which is called "Sendratari" (dance-drama) or sometimes simply translated as "ballet". Highly stylized methods of dances were developed and are still obvious nowadays, especially in the islands of Java and Bali. The Javanese Ramayana dance-drama is regularly staged and performed in 9th century Prambanan temple compound, Yogyakarta; while its Balinese counterpart is also performed in various Balinese temples throughout the island. The Javanese wayang wong dance-drama took stories from the episodes of Ramayana or Mahabharata Hindu epic. However, the dances are distinct to those of Indian. While hand gestures are still very important, Indonesian dancers do not have the Indian attention to mudra: instead the dances incorporated local forms. Javanese court dances stressed on graceful and slow movements while the dances of Balinese court are more dynamic and very expressive. The Javanese sacred ritual dance of Bedhaya is believed to have its root in 14th century Majapahit court or probably earlier, which originated as ritual dance performed by virgins to worship Indic deities such as Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu.
In Bali, dances has become the integral part of Hindu Balinese rituals. Experts believed that balinese dance derived from older dance tradition of Java. Friezes on East Javanese temples built during the 14th century show headdresses almost identical to those still being used for dances in Bali today. These represent a remarkable unbroken continuity of form at least 600 years old. Certain sacred dances are reserved and only performed during certain religious ceremony. Each Balinese dances have special functions, from sacred ritual dances performed only in Balinese temples such as sacred sanghyang dedari and Barong dance that involved trance, dance drama that retold the legends and popular stories such as legong and kecak, to the dance for welcoming guests such as pendet or social youth dance such as joged. The topeng dance also popular in Java and Bali, it often took story from Panji tales, originated from 12th century Kediri kingdom. The notable topeng dances are topeng Cirebon dance and topeng Bali dance.