Ronggeng’s Historical and Contemporary Context

The once popular social event known as Ronggeng lives on today as an “art dance” which is performed as a staged representation of Malay social dance. Ronggeng as a social community event was a holistic arts practice which involved live music, impromptu pantun exchange (Malay poetry) and social partner dance.

Ronggeng was historically an event that encouraged communal participation in the villages. There were itinerant troupes which travelled from one village to the next bringing their ensemble of musicians and dancers. According to some oral history recordings, the duration of these entertainment could last for days and even weeks.

The term Ronggeng is usually associated with the Javanese social dance form. Although there might be some similarities, the Ronggeng Melayu is distinguished by the music genres that are played, the dance techniques and the fashion wear that is associated with the form. The incorporation of “Melayu” is also a way to distinguish the differences between other adjacent forms such as the Sundanese Jaipongan, Gandrung of Banyuwangi and Lengger from Banyumas.

The term is also an umbrella term for the arrangement of three music-dance genres, Asli, Inang and Joget. Also known as the tiga serangkai (trinket), these genres are arranged specifically in these order from slow tempo to the fast tempo. Hence, the tendency to say Ronggeng is Joget could be due to the fact the third genre, Joget, is the fast and exciting one, thus the most popular genre.

The popularity of Ronggeng became the main feature of many communal events such as village celebrations after harvest, weddings and key events of a person’s rites of passage. The emergence of the urban entertainment parks as a cosmopolitan feature of the late colonial period in certain urban centres in maritime Southeast Asia, co-opted Ronggeng into dance halls. It is in these dance halls that there was popularisation of the form amongst urban youths and the incorporation of other popular (Western) dance genres. Ronggeng’s Historical and Contemporary Context Daud Hamzah,

=

Chara Menari Ronggeng dan Mak Inang (The Way to Dance the Ronggeng and Mak Inang), 1965, p. 2.