Jakarta is not only famous for ondel ondel art. This metropolis has a variety of unique traditional arts. One of them is the Betawi Mask Dance. Betawi Mask Dance is one of the Betawi traditional dances in Jakarta that uses masks as its trademark.
This dance is a combination of dance, music and singing. Like a theater or opera performance, dancers dance to the accompaniment of music and singing. Betawi Mask Dance is more theatrical and communicative through movement.
Betawi Mask Dance was originally performed around by artists. They are usually invited as fillers of entertainment in events such as weddings, circumcisions, and others. According to the Betawi community’s belief, this dance can keep away from calamity. But along with the changing times, that belief began to fade and make this dance just entertainment in the event. But even though that belief is starting to disappear, this dance is still held to enliven a party or custom event.
In the show, Betawi Mask Dance begins with a song accompanied by accompaniment music. After that the dancers came out while dancing using masks. The movements performed by the dancers depend on the theme that is brought. The themes presented in this dance are quite varied, including community life, legendary stories, social criticism, and other classic stories. Betawi Mask Dance is a theatrical dance. So there is a message conveyed through movements in dancing. This dance is usually accompanied by traditional Betawi musical instruments such as fiddle, large drum, kempul, triple kromong, kecrek, kulanter and pitcher gong.
The costume that is used in the Betawi Mask Dance also depends on the theme that is brought, but it still cannot be separated from the typical Betawi clothing. For male dancers, they usually wear clothes like black clothes, T-shirts, trousers and sarong. Also in the head usually use a cap or headband. For female dancers, they usually use long fabrics and kebaya clothes, complete with scarves. In addition to the head wearing a colorful crown that is usually called a flower mask. And do not forget to wear masks that cover the faces of the dancers. The masks the dancers use are made of wood. This mask does not wear a headband, but dancers attach to their faces by being bitten on the inside of the mask.
To dance the Betawi Mask Dance is not easy. There are 3 things that must be owned by these Betawi mask dancers. first, dancers must be fat, that is graceful or graceful. Dancers also must be cheerful and should not look sad when dancing. Finally, dancers must be agile and move freely.
In its development, Betawi Mask Dance is not only used as an entertainment event during weddings or circumcisions. But this dance is also often performed at large Betawi traditional events in Jakarta. Betawi Mask Dance has developed, so that there are many variations and types such as the lipet gandes dance, solo mask dance, enjot-enjotan dance, gegot dance, beautiful mask dance, princess mask dance, expression mask dance, and kang aji dance.
Well, this is the information we provide about Betawi Mask Traditional Dance from Jakarta. Hopefully it will be useful and will broaden your horizons about Indonesian traditional culture. So, have you prepared your best vacation to Indonesia?
