Promoting Seudati Dance - Art and Cultural Traditions from Aceh Province, Indonesia

How are your activities today? Have you traveled or visited tourist destinations in your city? Alright, today I'm going to share a story with all members of the #Steem-Travelers community. However, today I am not promoting about tourist destinations, I will review this publication about one of the cultural and artistic traditions of the province of Aceh, Indonesia.

In last week's post I published and promoted one of the "Gayo Rafting" rides which is a tourist destination in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. But today I will publish #steemexclusive content about the arts and culture of Nusantara (Indonesia). This is one of the traditional dances of the Aceh region, namely the Seudati dance. All of these documentations and reviews are original content that I developed according to my knowledge of art and culture.

The main goal of promoting local arts is my way of preserving the culture and works of the nation's children in my country, Indonesia. If not by promoting through social media, then how will the world know about it? And in the future, it is very likely that our culture and traditions will be imitated and claimed as the culture of foreign citizens. This is what we really have to protect and culture must be preserved, therefore I continue to want to promote and introduce the cultural arts of the Aceh province to other nations around the world.

As we generally know, the Seudati Dance is an ethnic dance of the Acehnese people which is an acculturation between the cultures of the Acehnese and Persian people. According to historical heritage, this dance originally grew and developed in Gigieh Village, Simpang Tiga District, Pidie Regency, Aceh Province. Then this traditional art developed to all regions in the province of Aceh, Indonesia.

For your information, basically this dance was also functioned as a medium of da'wah in spreading Islam by religious leaders in the province of Aceh. Along with the development of today's era, this Seudati dance has functioned as a traditional dance and cultural art which is a performance in various celebrations of special events. Seudati dance is also a regional dance in Aceh, this dance is a characteristic of the Acehnese people in staging art stages in various regions in Indonesia.

You need to know, that the movements in this Seudati Dance have distinctive, energetic, and very straightforward movements demonstrated by special dancers. Movements in the Seudati dance are dominated by hand and foot movements, and are supported by varying patterns of changing places by all dancers. This dance also has the most prominent movements simultaneously, namely chest clapping, finger flicking, hand movements and pounding of the feet which are carried out swiftly, quickly, in tune and rhythmically.

This is one of the attractions for the audience who witnessed this cultural and traditional art performance. This Seudati Dance is demonstrated in teams and is also carried out in a very compact manner, so that the audience who witnessed this performance must have been amazed because the Seudati Dance performance was very entertaining. In this Seudati dance performance, one of the "Syehs" or poets who has prepared a "Hikayat" or fighting spirit story is read with a special rhythm and followed by dance movements.

This type of dance is specifically for men because to play this dance requires special techniques, then requires extra cooperation to be able to produce distinctive, energetic, and very straightforward movements. As usual, playing this dance requires 8 members who have been specially trained. Then it also needs to be completed by a poet who brings poetry so that dancers can follow the rhythm according to the poetry that is sung. The poems recited by this dance are almost the same as the Rapai Geleng dance or some other typical and traditional dances. It's just that the rhythm is different and brings saga for the spirit of fighting, this is an art and cultural education that is carried out for generations by the Acehnese people.

This dance movement is demonstrated standing, as well as a lot of additional movements but does not hold any musical instrument. The sound of the music comes from the movement of hands, clapping, the pounding of the dancers' feet and is assisted by a little poetry reading by the poet (Syeh). I think this deserves to be promoted and will add the latest insights for members in the Steem Travelers community, hope you enjoy. Saha is also very proud to promote Lifestyle, culture, traditions, local wisdom and various unique things that exist in Indonesia. For that, look forward to the publication of my next latest #steemexclusive content, as well as various information about local tourism and interesting tourist destinations from Indonesia.