Tuesday, October 28, 2008

My World Tuesday Post: The Dance of The Peacock



I know, I promised you that I'd post the second installment of the photo essay about Bandung's traditional wedding; but the essay involves a lot of photos and quite a bit of a story to tell, and frankly speaking I'm a bit busy today and don't have the time to prepare and upload the photos and write the story. So, instead of continuing with the essay, today I bring you this photo of these beautiful "Tari Merak" dancers.

These "Tari Merak" (Dance of The Peacock) dancers are part of the party that welcome the groom's entourage at my friend's wedding last Sunday (see yesterday's post).

"Tari Merak" is a relatively new composition dance. It was coreographed by a prominent Bandung (Sundanese) artist Raden Tjetje Somantri in the 1950s. The graceful movements of this dance are inspired by the behavior of "burung merak" (the peacock), a native Indonesian bird that is known worldwide for its beautiful and colorful feathers.

The coreography of "Tari Merak" has been revised/modified twice since it was created. Both modifications were made by Irawati Durban Ardjo. The first modification was made in 1965, and the second in 1985.

This post is my participation for the new meme My World Tuesday. To see photos and stories from other participating blogs from around the world, please follow this link.

26 comments:

MaryAnn Ashley said...

How interesting & equisite! The image tells a great story.

Profile Not Available said...

Maryann is right, exquisite is the perfect description. I love the expressions on the dancers' faces!

ft. lauderdale daily photo said...

Beautiful costumes. Great post, too.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Eki: What wonderful outfits with the Peacock head dress and the Peacock eyes on the cape.

Virginia said...

What gorgeous costumes.The color is spectacular. Tis is great fun, Eki!

Dina said...

Peacocks are so majestic and so are these dancers!

Arija said...

Beautiful dancers.The costumes are stunning. Great post.

nobu said...

Please visit to my blog to see your award.

Unknown said...

The Peacock dancers are so gorgeous, very interesting

Unknown said...

Eki, I'm giving you the Kreativ Blogger award. Stop by my blog to pick it up :-)
Greetings!

Oman said...

Thank you for the wonderful tour. This 2nd week of meme really makes us appreciate the many places that we don't usually see or ever had a chance to visit like the one you showed me in this post. Hope you get to have time to check my world too. Another great job and more to come in the coming weeks.

Anonymous said...

I like the Tari Merak dancers...they like to smile and beautiful...hem...the beauty of Indonesians. Actually, Sundanese's representing the great culture as well as Angklung and its uniqueness.

Rob said...

The colors and costumes are amazing.

Rambling Woods said...

Oh my..those beautiful costumes. The color and detail is amazing. I will wait to see more of the wedding photos when you have the time. But it makes our ceremonies here look sort of bland almost. Not that any wedding is bland, maybe not as involved is a better word...

Diederick Wijmans said...

Beautiful and graceful and a great capture of these wonderful colours, Eki!!

Dawn Newsome said...

Beautiful dancers and beautiful photo. I found you through Nobu.
Dawn

Anonymous said...

As the others have already said, these dancers look stunning. Your friends wedding must have been beautiful.

Louise said...

You know how to do weddings! This is fantastic! I'm not disappointed in the different post because this one is so wonderful

Anonymous said...

Wow! I wonder how long it'll take to complete the costumes!

Mahmud Yussop said...

Dance and music on the streets like these is a joy to see.Great moments. Wonderful shots too Saudara Eki.

rob said...

Those beautiful girls deserved a beautiful photo and they had it!!

Anonymous said...

yoy should get a price for this photo, amazing, wow!! thank you so much for the award!!

Gaelyn said...

They are beautiful girls in vibrant peacock colors.

escape said...

i love to see this in the future. im really curious of this culture.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and look like a fun dance. Thanks for sharing.

Susie of Arabia said...

Amazingly beautiful! The peacock costumes are perfect.