Historical Holistic of Indonesian Dance Stages

1. Pre Kingdom Era
2. Kingdom Era
3. Post Kingdom Era

1. Pre Kingdom Era
Prior to contact to outer world
Animism, worship, ritual
Still preserved by tribes in Indonesia: Sumatera (Batak, Nias), Kalimantan (Dayak, Iban), Java (Badui), Sulawesi (Toraja), Papua (Dani)
Characterized by repetitive movement, eg. Tortor Dance of Batak people
2. Kingdom Era
Outside influence: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity
Celebrated ritual & art world
Sendratari (incorporated story in the dance; Ramayana & Mahabrata)
Indian influence integrated with local culture (mostly in Javanese & Balinese dances)
The emergence of Court Dances and Folk Dances
3. Post Kingdom era
Creative modern dance
Uniting different characteristics of various traditional dances
For entertainment purposes, celebrating events outside of religious ceremony

Topographical background of Indonesian Dance

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. The archipelago stretches about 5400 km from east to west and about 1700 km from north to south with more than 15 thousand islands. This topography makes Indonesia has very many differences in languages, cultures and aspects of life.

This also influences in dances the Indonesian people have. In line with the more than 300 tribes Indonesia has, there are various kinds of dances exist. There are three large groups of Indonesian territory which represent the kinds of dances. They are the east part, the center and the west part. The east part consists of islands in east Nusa Tenggara and Papua, the center consists of the west Nusa Tenggara and Bali, Sulawesi and Kalimantan while the west part is Java and Sumatra
The development of Indonesian dances are categorized into 5 time divisions
- remote ethnics territory life
- the insertion of foreign influence
- the breaking down of ethnic groups
- the idea of nationalization of dancing
- the new maturity seen through the seeking of values
in dancing

Musik Indonesia dan mancanegara

Musik Indonesia berasal dari musik tradional yang berkembang sesuai dengan Zamannya, hal ini tidak jauh berbeda dengan musik mancanegara atau dunia barat, namun di indonesia sendiri mempunyai khas unik dan menarik.