Dance from West Java

Performing Indonesia
Music, Dance, and Theater from West Java

October 4-5, 2014
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Dance from West Java: Indonesian College of the Arts

More than a dozen dancers and musicians from West Java perform traditional and contemporary songs and dances representing the island’s Sundanese culture. The program ranges from elegant aristocratic songs from the ancient Pajajaran kingdom to twentieth-century creations, such as the elaborate Peacock Dance and the popular social dance known as jaipongan. Classic dances interpret famous scenes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata. A new form of collective dance-drumming (rampak kendang) simultaneously displays percussive and choreographic virtuosity.

A joint presentation of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Washington, D.C., and the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian

Video by Hutomo Wicaksono