Arti dello Spettacolo / Performing Arts (original) (raw)
Les danseurs, médiums des pawang Stefania Rossetti Choreography, possessions and dispossessions are the sequence of the Jatilan ritual-performance in the village of Bener on Java island. The art of Jatilan is the initiation performance defined recently as a folkloristic art form of the Javanese tradition. Ancient transmissions have been handed down from the Majapahit and Mataram kingdoms, thanks to the elderly pawang masters to children’s and old people’s preparing themselves for the ability to see beyond the body practicing: dancing, playing traditional instruments and singing old songs in vernacular language. The ethnographic research that follows in this article transcribes the languages and symbolisms expressed by bodies possessed by the invisible. Groups of dancers, ride black and also white horses builted with bamboo and coconut, dancing for the public and collectively offering their self like flowers, rice and incense smoke on the largest and metaphorical table of the village. Space, time and simultaneity moving the young horses under the guidance of the wise Javanese tigers. Keywords: Possession, Ritual, Dance, Ethnography
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