Abridged Translation: A History of Gambyong

Sri Rochana Widyastutieningrum (Author)

“A History of Gambyong: Folk Arts to Classical Dance” is an abridged English translation of Sejarah Tari Gambyong: Seni Rakyat Menuji Istana (2004), a monograph by Dr. Sri Rochana Widyastutieningrum, a Javanese scholar-practitioner of dance. Her original monograph discusses a wide range of historical and contemporary topics that surround the practice of gambyong dances, which began as a culturally significant Javanese folk dance genre before being adopted, developed, and practiced within Surakarta’s royal households. Today it continues to be widely performed both inside and outside the royal courts. The author brings together Javanese poetry, philosophy, history, movement analysis and discourses on aesthetics and symbolism to illustrate the meaning-making process of this dance form in the specific cultural setting of Central Java.

This translation is designed to be used as a learning resource for the American classroom in which Indonesian dance forms and cultural contexts are rarely encountered. To this end, this translation has reorganized, edited and condensed the original text, focusing on giving a broad overview of gambyong’s history and cultural context in order to make it more accessible to readers new to the arts of the region. Furthermore, this digital publication includes photographs and videos of dance movements and costumes, as well as audio recordings of the dance’s musical accompaniment. It is the translators’ hope that these visual and auditory media will breathe life into the translation, bringing the vibrant and living tradition of gambyong dance to a wider audience.