Story At Night's
The Mystery of Ronggeng Dance

From childhood I loved to dance, even the parents who encouraged me to love to dance. I took a lot of dance classes, from ballet, modern dance, to contemporary, from the age of 5 years until now I am 21 years old. Among all those dances I really liked the regional dances. I think the dance of the area is unique and in every dance has a story. That's why I chose a dance art major at a university in Bandung.

Teacher Tariku once said, if in the dance there are other spirits that move our bodies, move according to the story we bring. That sentence is what makes me curious about various kinds of traditional dances. And the dance that intrigued me the most was the Ronggeng Dance.

I studied many books about ronggeng dance, even I had observation to Pangandaran area which is famous for the mountain ronggeng dance. The more I get from ronggeng, the more curious I am with the mystical dance that comes from West Java.

One version of this ronggeng dance tells of a princess who was left dead by her lover, so the princess mourned her loved ones. As the princess wept over the decaying corpse of her lover, some young men came to her with the intention of comforting her. The young men danced around the princess while covering their noses due to the stench of corpses. Over time the princess finally joined in dancing and singing in a melancholic tone. Perhaps the beginning of the mystique of this dance is when ronggeng dance is used for revenge, so it is as if this dance smells of mystical death, and it became one of my inspirations.

The story began when I went to my teacher, asking where I could learn ronggeng dance. Initially the art teacher forbade me to explore the dance. He said the dance is not an ordinary dance because it must be mentally strong and strong faith. Ronggeng is not a random dance, ronggeng requires kebatinan science. But I kept forcing her to tell me where I could learn the dance. I said I was ready for everything that was going to happen.

Hearing the statement from me, my teacher finally gave up as well. He gave an address to his friend who was in Garut area. My teacher told me that Mey's mother was an old ronggeng artist and didn't dance anymore.

Determinedly going to learn ronggeng, I finally look for Mey's mother to Garut. After asking here and there, I finally found the place where Mey's mother lived. Without asking anything Mey's mother immediately greeted me, and out of nowhere she knew what I meant to come there.

After chatting a lot about ronggeng, finally Mey's mother was willing to teach me. He said within 3 days if I was serious, then I would be able to master the ronggeng dance. I also took it. Mey's mother told me to stay for 3 days at her house. Mey's mother said she would teach me specifically.

Mey's mother was a middle-aged woman. At home I saw many pictures of him dancing. He said, if he was a ronggeng dancer during the Dutch colonial era and usually he was called to the entertainment of nobles in ancient times. He even told me that he once danced in front of famous Dutch figures. I became more and more convinced to learn ronggeng from Mey's mother.

On the first day Mey's mother told me to fast, but this fast was different from the usual fast. Starting with a fast that does not allow eating for a day, but only with white rice and water. On the second day Mey's mother took me to a bathhouse that I did not know in which area, which must be in the middle of the forest, and there was a well surrounded by tombs.

That afternoon Mey's mother told me to bathe in a well with a big tub leading to a gutter, which we used to call a shower. Mey's mother told me to take a bath in the shower. I, who was wearing a white towel, started to shower. The shower had rules, I couldn't stand and I had to squat.

The third day, the night Mey's mother took me to the middle of the rubber tree forest, this time we were not both. My mother invited some young men and middle-aged people who were waiting for us complete with sunda gamelan there. Mey's mother immediately asked me to dance and the people were not told to play the instrument directly. It's strange! I felt an oddity. Why did Mey's mother practice using real tools in the middle of the night? Does this not bother anyone else? I don't know why my body ignored my mind. My body kept dancing nonstop until I subconsciously closed my eyes.

Suddenly, a delicate hand touched my shoulder. A beautiful woman wearing a white kebaya smiled behind me. He grabbed and pulled my hand, then took me running and kept running through the forest. I don't know where the woman took me. I can't scream until I'm in a big field.

The field was green with a golden chair in the middle. There sat a woman wearing a green kebaya with a golden crown. On the edge were two women holding spears. And GOSH...!!! Mey's mother sat down and looked at me smiling, and the woman took me dancing. I don't know why all of a sudden my hands were moving nonstop like someone was moving my body. I was amazed at my body for moving on my own. Suddenly there was smoke around me, then men in black surrounded me. Holy hooch! Who is this and where am I? Then suddenly everything went dark like night.

The men danced around me and I saw the woman dancing like a possessed man. I don't know what happened and where I am. My tears were dripping and everything changed. The men who had been dancing with me turned into big, creepy creatures. His eyes were large in red and his body was covered in fur. The woman continued to dance while moving her head until it turned 180 degrees. I looked from afar, the green woman was laughing out loud. Beside him Mey's mother simply smiled as she nodded her head. I feel hypnotized, I feel like I'm in a strange world. I danced, kept dancing until my eyes turned dark, and I didn't know anything. I fell into the grass that pierced my skin.

"Mayan Feng... Wake up! The training was over!", a voice sounded.

Eyes open. And how shocked I was when I woke up. I just realized, I was in that pendopo again. I saw Mey's mother, she looked smiling. He helped me get up and took me to his house. At her home, Mey said nothing, but she gave her a red scarf. Then he approached me and said.

"It's time for Maya to come home, now Maya neng has become ronggeng. Dance with it, Maya neng will get everything she wants. It's a gift from mom. Later after getting out of here, neng Maya just walk straight ahead and do not look back. Continue to follow the path, later Maya neng will find a vehicle that neng Maya parking"

This is so weird! Everything feels weird! I started to get out of the chair. My body was being moved out of Mey's house. So many questions in my head. What have I done and why am I here? Why am I like this and why is everything going so fast? And why can't I look back?

And when I turn my head back... OH MY...!!! It turned out that what I saw was not Mey's mother's house, but a burial area with gravestones lined up.

Long story short, I went back to Bandung and everything went so fast. When I got home I saw a lot of people in my house. There were a lot of my brothers there too. When I entered, I saw my mother running towards me and she was crying. Then she asked me from anywhere. And one statement that surprised me was amazing, when my mom said that I'd been reported missing for a month. I just silently stared, unable to say anything. After that I was taken to an ustad to be treated. From there I just realized that the ronggeng dance is really mystical. The one who taught me was not a dancer, but a supernatural being.

After a few months I finally became a professional dancer. I don't know why so many people praise my dance. But to me it is a very secret thing. Because when I dance ronggeng, the dancing is not me, but the spirit of the old ronggeng dancers who follow from Ranca Village, Garut it.

After looking for information here and there, I only found out from my art teacher, if actually Mey's mother was the incarnation of a princess from Garut Kingdom who was smart to dance ronggeng. That's why the dance teacher forbade me, because ronggeng is not a dance. Ronggeng is a mystical dance, and the teacher of tariku also said if there are people who have a sixth sense, then they will always say that I do not dance alone, he said, but with a green princess and a golden crown.