Young people in Jakarta get into the swing of Aceh's 'saman' dance

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Describe cool for high school students. The general notion of what is cool may include the ear-clinging iPod or joining a band or the basketball team.

But this is not the case for hundreds of high school students who came to cheer their friends in a saman dance competition at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday.

The 2007 FEMME Exhibition featured the dance competition, to cater to the growing interest among students to learn the Acehnese traditional dance.

Thirteen groups from schools in Greater Jakarta were selected for the final of the competition, beating out 15 other groups from the preliminary rounds.

Groups of girls in colorful costumes sat down while moving and shouting in harmony with the beat of the drums accompanying an Acehnese song on the stage.

Said Rahmat, president of an organization dedicated to traditional arts and folklore festivals -- the Conseil International des Organisations de Festivals de Folklore et d'Arts Traditionals -- said the growing interest in saman was related to the increasing international recognition of the dance.

"Every time I attended sessions of Indonesian performances abroad, people often ask for saman instead of Javanese or Balinese dance," he said.

He said his organization, which actively teaches traditional dances at schools, introduced saman to students in 1997.

Said said the growing interest in the dance among youth came from its dynamic moves, which matched the students' young spirit.

Saman is usually performed in a group of up to 15 students, with one person playing the drum and another singing an Acehnese song. Since the dance was originally about spreading Islamic teachings, the songs mostly deal with religious advice and examples of good deeds from the past.

Some artists also develop new songs, but still in Acehnese.

The exhibition's organizing committee director, Linda Herlinda, said it was the second time the annual event had included saman among its events.

The saman performance at last year's exhibition was recognized by the Indonesian Record Museum as it involved 114 dancers in one performance.

"We made it a competition for youth this year because we want to draw more young visitors to the exhibition," she said.

The FEMME Exhibition, which is aimed at small and medium enterprises, particularly those owned by women, is in its fourth year. Part of the revenue from the exhibition will go to an organization that works with women diagnosed with breast cancer.