About My Culture: Saman Dance, Aceh's Artworks to Enrich the World Heritage

About My Culture: Saman Dance, Aceh's Artworks to Enrich the World Heritage

This post is in order to follow the challenge of #AboutMyCulture Challenge, which is held @aaronli and sponsored @sndbox in upvote form. There are three things that are emphasized in this race, what is your cultural topic? Why did you choose it? And what makes it special to you and your local culture ?.
I chose a topic about saman dance from Aceh. This dance comes from Gayo. However, in some literature also mentioned saman dance is used as a medium to convey a message of dakwah to the community in the area Gayo by scholars who came from Pasai Samudera in the 18th century. This saman dance, one of Aceh's 12 works of art that has been designated as Indonesia's nonobjects Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia.

This saman dance is played with a lively, fluid and light movement, accompanied by a rebana instrument, and a dancer's body parts, such as finger passes, clapping and chest clapping. Then followed by the sheikh's hymn. The number of dancers reaches tens, but must be odd. Because the number of dancers is a lot, needed a good cooperation, to produce a uniform movement so it looks interesting.
In this saman dance, there is a dancer who is dubbed with a lifter, who becomes the main character, and who determines the dance movement while singing poems. Then there is also a title clamped with a role to help the movement of dancers and poems. Then there is also a clipper is a regular dancer who follows the movement and the last passenger is on the left and right end, its function is to maintain the integrity of the dancer's position to stay tight and straight.

In addition to music, hand movements are also very dominant in the saman dance. In addition to functioning as to beautify the movement as well as music. Movement, among others, there is a cerkoh, the movement of both hands coincide and unidirectional, then there is cilok the movement of the finger tip fingers like taking objects. Then there is the movement of tepok, hand movements made in various elongated positions and propellers.
In addition, the hand in dance saman also wear head movements such as nodding affirmed and girek, the motion of rotating head like a propeller. All these movements contain meaning that can be practiced in our daily lives.

I chose the topic of saman dance, because this artwork has a high historical value for the people of Aceh and also for the people of Indonesia, even the world. This saman dance art work is a relic of our ancestors, who is able to bring the name of Aceh to the world level. Saman dance was developed as a medium of propaganda, but now it has become a culture.

Saman dance is now able to break the world record from Museum Rekor Indonesia (MURI) in art performance held on August 13, 2017, at Thousand Hill Stadium, Gayo Lues District, Aceh. This is evidenced by the submission of certificate by Manager MURI, Andre Purwandono after the activity.

In the performance, 12,262 dancers rocked the stadium. Whereas previously the dancer who targeted maximum 10.001 people. However, because the enthusiasm of the community followed him so that it exceeds the target. At that time not only people from 23 districts / cities who witnessed these activities from various provinces in Indonesia, even from some developed countries in the world.

They attend a week before the event to witness the initial process of the activity until the performance is finished. In particular, this saman dance is not only defined as a non-Indonesian Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia, but also a UNESCO world heritage of non-cultural objects in 2011. This saman dance has also twice broke two records. In the Year 2014, with the dancers when it's 5,057 people. Thanks.