Wayang Wong - Dance Style

Dance Style

Wayang wong has fixed patterns of movement and costume:

For male performers:

• Alus: very slow, elegant and smooth movement. For example, the dance of Arjuna, Puntadewa and all other refined and slimly built Kshatriyas. There are two types of movement, lanyap and luruh.

• Gagah: a more masculine and powerful dance movement, used commonly for the roles of strongly built kshatriyas, soldiers and generals.
  • Kambeng: a more powerful and athletic dance, used for the roles of Bima, Antareja, and Ghatotkacha.
  • Bapang: gagah and kasar for the warriors of antagonist roles such as Kaurawa.
  • Kalang kinantang: falls somewhere between alus and gagah, danced by tall, slim dancers in the roles of Kresno or Suteja.

• Kasar: a coarse style, used in portraying evil characters such as Rakshasa, ogres and demons.
• Gecul: a funny court jester and commoners, portraying ponokawan and cantrik
  • Kambeng dengklik: for ape warriors, such as Hanuman.
  • Kalang kinantang dengklik: for ape warriors, such as Sugriwa and Subali.

For female performers: Kshatriya noblemen. Costumes and props distinguish kings, kshatriyas, monks, princesses, The movements known as nggruda or ngenceng encot in the classical high style of dance consist of nine basic movements (joged pokok) and twelve other movements (joged gubahan and joged wirogo) and are used in portraying Bedoyo and Srimpi.

Today, the wayang wong, following the Gagrak style of Surakarta, is danced by women. They follow the alus movements associated with a Kshatriya, resembling Arjuna. Following the Gagkra style from Yogyakarta a male dancer uses these same Alus movements to depict princes and generals. There are about 45 distinct character types.