A traveller who passes by Bandung shouldn’t miss the opportunity to dive into the Sundanese life, eating in a warung looking at the wayang and listening to the gamelan, ending the evening dancing the jaipongan.
This dance is a fusion between topeng banjet and Ketuk tilu, that is a dance of women for men. As one of the characteristics of ketuk tilu is the utmost freedom of movements, spontaneity and improvisation it was logical that women and men began dancing together sooner or later. And it was considered as scandalous. All this, long time ago.
Nowadays the Jaipongan dance matches all this with elements taken from the Indonesian martial arts, the Sundanese courtship and the rural dances, accompanied by a loud drums music to which the gamelan musicians reply with the unique rhythm of rebab.
The photos show the preparation of the dancers in one of the numerous resorts where we can dance jaipongan.