Barongsai Master Discovers Diversity in Traditional Dance

Jakarta Globe, Yuli Krisna, February 1, 2014

Usi Samsudin, 69, is the head of a lion dance school performing
Barongsai Sekeloa. (JG Photo/Yuli Krisna)

There is something unique yet familiar about the lion dance, known popularly in Indonesia as Barongsai, as performed by one Bandung-based lion dance school.

The movement is slower and more graceful, and the accompanying music is based on traditional Sundanese instruments with few hints of Chinese elements, while the shape and decor gracing the lion’s head and body seems to be rooted more in local arts and woodcraft. The dance itself is based on the quintessentially Indonesian martial art of pencak silat instead of the more common techniques of Chinese wushu.

Usi Samsudin, 69, the head of Cahaya Panghibur, a school of pencak silat and lion dance, says it specializes in performing Barongsai Sekeloa, which was developed in Bandung nearly a century ago.

The dance was introduced to Bandung in 1920 when the Dutch colonial rulers brought Chinese laborers to work on a Dutch East Indies office that later became the West Java governor’s office. The building is popularly known as Gedung Sate, or the Satay Building, because of the lightning rod on its roof.

The workers settled in the Sekeloa area of Bandung, around two kilometers from the construction site. Using local materials they made their own lion dance costumes and staged their own performances using local talents and accompanying musicians.

The lion head used in Barongsai Sekeloa is much bigger than its more traditional counterpart, constructed out of bamboo covered with cloth and paper. The costume is painted in bright primary color as opposed to the dominantly two-colored lions in more mainstream versions. For the body, a piece of colorfully dyed cotton cloth is used in contrast to the silky, scaly and fluffy cloth used elsewhere.

Sekeloa lion dance costumes weigh at least five kilograms, compared to less than two kilograms in other lion dance costumes, with the mouth being the only moveable part (other lion dance costumes feature moveable eyelids).

The added weight makes for slower movements with bigger strides and wider stances. “It is hard to do acrobatics like the traditional lion dance. The [Sekeloa] version is limited to prancing,” Usi says.

While traditional lion dances allow for a more attractive and acrobatic performances using raised platforms and stilts, Barongsai Sekeloa tells its story using a wide array of costumes, like cats or ducks.

The accompanying music for Sekeloa uses traditional Sundanese instruments such as drums and gongs, with the addition of cymbals, which in Indonesia are found only in Chinese-influenced music.

Although demand for more a mainstream lion dance is stronger, Sekeloa dance performers pride themselves on being unique. While other costumes are mass-produced and sometimes use modern materials like wires and plastics, Sekeloa costumes are painstakingly made by hand, with a single costume taking up to nine months to craft.

The performers also take pride in their ability to unite Sundanese and Chinese cultures and backgrounds as well as adapt different story lines and messages.

Usi says mainstream versions of the lion dance are more in demand because of their spectacular acrobatic displays, adding that many people within the Chinese-Indonesian community are not fans of the unorthodox interpretations of the age-old tradition.

For this Chinese New Year, he has been booked to do just one show for a fee of Rp 3 million ($246).

“Maybe it has to do with the many natural disasters recently and the upcoming elections,” Usi says of the slow business.

Despite the slow demand, Usi is keen on preserving the tradition.

“I have been blessed with these skills and knowledge. It is all about [preserving] the art. Let’s all preserve and develop this assimilation of Indonesian and Chinese cultures,” he says.

But the version’s adaptability means that the dance could have a wider audience beyond the ethnic Chinese community, traditions and celebrations. Usi says he can incorporate different messages, even comedy, into the performance and perform at secular celebrations, even Islamic weddings and festivities.

Usi, who has been performing since he was 10, says the strong demand for more conventional dances have seen him collaborate with schools like the Wang Lung school, which teaches traditional southern-style Chinese lion dance.

He has also sent dozens of his students to learn wushu, the Chinese martial art that forms the basis of the traditional lion dance.

But Usi is not giving up on Barongsai Sekeloa just yet. The Sundanese roots of this version has its appeal to young men in his neighborhood, all interested in learning the craft.

And that provides an outlet for the young people to keep themselves out of trouble, Usi says.