During last holiday, I have been to Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan(ASWARA) to watch the undergraduated students to perform their course dance performance. That is the first time I was exposed to Makyong dance.
Makyong dance left me with a memorable impression of the costume and the changes of the beat of the music. It is later that I found out both elements are important parts of the dance besides the movements of dance. We should also pay attention to the story or old-tale which the dance itself is meant to be performed. Makyong is said to be an old dance of Kelantan which was performed in theatre form that tells a story about the gods and spirits, orges or giants,palace functionaries and animals. Usually, the dancers are mostly female even the man lead role-"pak yong" and addition role such as "mak yong" ,the clowns(peran), the attendants (inang) and the minor roles of the character to be told by the dance-theatre.
There is a strong leading music orchestra for the dance as dancing and singing are mostly required in the dance. The musical instruments that produce the music of the dance are gongs, rebab and gendang. Sometimes, the dancers need to sing the haunting melody to add colour to the dance. At the beginning of every Makyong dance performance, Mengadap Rebab dance is always performed. The dance is normally ended with graceful gestures of the main leading dancers sitting on the stage.
2 comments:
Hi Siew Ching, How do you do? I am interested to write to you after reading this particular posting. I have never watched a live performance of Mak Yong dance before and I’m certainly jealous for you since you have had the chance to watch one(just kidding though). Well, watching a live show is better than reading the inanimate texts about Mak Yong. Based from your narration, the roles in Mak Yong such as the clowns (peran), the attendants (inang) and other characters are quite similar to the play by Shakespeare. For instance, the clown in Mak Yong is quite similar to the Fool character in the play, King Lear. It makes me wonder what are the roles of Peran in Mak Yong dance? Maybe the Peran in Mak Yong is used as a character to create a sense if humor or sarcasm to the whole performance. What do you think?That’s all for now.Do take care and all the best.SAYONARA
Well, I am impressed that you come out with the idea that the roles in Mak Yong Dance is similar with Shakespeare's play.
According to what I've known about this dance, peran plays a role of narration in the dance and also a contrast characteristic with the others character. As I say in the post, Mak Yong dance is a dance telling a story.Thus, there must be a narrator sometimes on stage to tell the audience about the story and peran normally plays that kind of role.
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