Tradition · Javanese Ramayana dance-drama
Prambanan Ramayana Ballet
Also known as Ramayana Ballet Prambanan, Sendratari Ramayana Prambanan, Sendratari Ramayana
A wordless Javanese dance-drama of the Ramayana, a form of wayang wong with gamelan, staged beside the Prambanan temples since 1961. In the dry months, May to October, it plays on an open-air stage west of the complex with the floodlit temples behind it; from November to April it moves indoors to the Trimurti theatre. Performances now run three nights a week, with more than two hundred dancers and musicians.
- Date
- 1961–None
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
In 2012 Guinness World Records recognised a Prambanan performance in which 230 dancers were on stage together for about ten minutes, and a 2020 Gadjah Mada University doctoral study interviewed Muslim dancers who perform it.
The schedule has changed over the decades: older accounts describe full-moon performances, while the current operator lists Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, subject to change. No source read gives the share of dancers who are Muslim.
Connections (3)
- AnalogueKecak
Kecak and the Prambanan Ramayana Ballet are both twentieth-century stagings of the Ramayana shaped with visitors in mind, one in Bali and one in Java. They answer the problem differently: kecak, shaped in Bali in the 1930s, replaces the gamelan with a male chorus chanting 'cak', while the Javanese ballet, staged at Prambanan since 1961, keeps a full gamelan and wordless court dance. In Bali, Ramayana dance is still offered both ways.
- Located atPrambanan, Java
The Trimurti open-air and indoor stages were built on the west side of Prambanan, across the Opak River, to stage the Ramayana ballet with the illuminated temples as backdrop. The official schedule places the outdoor show on the open stage in the dry months of May to October and the indoor show at the Trimurti theatre from November to April, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, moving indoors if it rains before the start.
- Ramayana traditionKakawin Ramayana
The Prambanan ballet is described as a visualisation of the Kakawin Ramayana, the Javanese version of the story, rendered as wayang wong: court dance, drama and gamelan with no dialogue. Its full cycle has been staged in four episodes, the abduction of Sita, Hanuman set on fire, the death of Kumbakarna, and Rama's reunion with Sita. The Yayasan Roro Jonggrang has staged it since 1961.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, "Prambanan Ramayana Ballet", "Ramayana Ballet" and "Prambanan". InJourney Destination (PT Taman Wisata Candi) ticket and event pages; The Jakarta Post, 17 October 2012; Dewi Cahya Ambarwati, UGM doctoral dissertation (2020).
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