Dance : Masked Drama of Java at Caltech

With a high-stakes morality drama unfolding in the Persian Gulf, the Javanese vision of life as a cycle from innocence to depravity can take on unintended resonance.

The cycle appeared in the “Topeng Cirebon: Masked Dance of West Java” program Friday in Beckman Auditorium at Caltech in Pasadena as part of the continuously fascinating 15-month-long Festival of Indonesia.

While performances on festive occasions in the villages outside the city of Cirebon can last up to eight hours or even longer, here the program ran about 90 minutes. Even so, it traversed all five character types that the Javanese consider basic to human life and personality, and included a comic interlude, thus maintaining traditional structure and moral thrust.

The program began with the character who represents the human ideal (Panji) and ended with his exact opposite, a lust-and-power-mad degenerate king (Klana). In between, personality types of increasing maturity and responsibility appeared, each character depicted with a different mask and movement style.

Sujana Arja, principal dancer, took four of the roles; his sister, Keni Arja, appeared in one. Both brother and sister are designated as masters ( dalang topeng ) in the art, and dazzled here.

Sandrut Bin Sarwiti, the important clown figure ( bodor ), provided the interlude and also danced a secondary character. Accompaniment was offered by a 14-member gamelan orchestra.

After a short meditation and prayer, Sujana Arja opened the cycle with “Panji,” the ideal human being--virtuous, self-controlled, humble. Wearing a white mask with a serene, sweet smile and downcast eyes, he danced with slow, restrained movements that at times were barely perceptible and that continually contrasted with the clamor of the gamelan. He who can keep his head while others are losing theirs. . . .

Keni Arja danced “Pamindo,” the second character, a light-hearted, good-natured, flirtatious youth, and gloried in confident attractiveness. (The mask is also white, with a broader smile and a perky up-turned nose.)

Sujana Arja danced the three remaining character types. “Rumyang” is an androgynous figure in a pink mask, who represents a stage of life more purposeful than Pamindo’s.

“Tumenggung” (light-red mask) is the mature, decisive warrior who accepts responsibility and puts down the rebellious Jinggananom (Sandrut Bin Sarwiti).

But power can corrupt, leading to a “Klana” (blood red mask with bulging eyes). Considered the essence of depravity, Klana appears at the end of one cycle only to be followed, according to a program note, by a Panji of the next. One can only hope for such an optimistic outcome in real-life situations.