Langendriyan: The Expression of Cross-gendered Performance in a JavaneseDance Drama and Its Influence on Local Community
Kaori Okado

Introduction
This paper analyzes the relationship between the circumstances of the genesis ofa unique Javanese dance drama, Langendriyan and the expression of its
cross-gendered performance from the perspectives of performer, movement,
costume, and song. It also explores the influence of its expression on the local
community.
Langendriyan, which I am discussing in this paper, was created in the latenineteenth century at Mangkunegaran palace, in Surakarta,1 Central Java, Indonesia.
It has been continuously performed up to the present day. All the lines of the play aresung in Javanese traditional verse called tembang, and the subject matter was takenfrom the legend of Damarwulan,2 a story of the Majapahit kingdom period (end of thethirteenth c. ~ beginning of the sixteenth c.) in East Java. The theme is battle (victoryand death), devotion, and love (romance) around the king as the center of the world.3
Its most distinguishing feature is that women play all of the roles. In central Java, it
was common for men to play women’s roles or men to dance women’s dances, butthere was no opposite case seen before Langendriyan. That is why it is very originaland unique.
Circumstances of the genesis of Langendriyan
At the time Langendriyan was created, the political situation of central Java wascomplex. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Mataram kingdom, which
ruled the area, was divided into 4 parts under the control of the Dutch East India

Actually, the two forms of Langendriyan were created nearly simultaneously in
Jogjakarta and Surakarta, the then dual capitals of Central Java at that time. The
circumstances of their birth and the formation of both of these forms of Langendriyan
are different, and beyond the scope of this paper.
2
The legend of Damarwulan was based on Pakem Wasana and it was mainly used for Wayang
Kelitik (a puppet play which uses thin wooden puppets and was popular in Eastern Java). It
originated in Eastern Java, but it was very popular in Central Java by the seventeenth century.
(Theodore G. Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java Vol. I: Synopsis of Javanese Literature 900—1900
A.D., The Hague: Martinus Nyhoff, 1967, p. 232)
3
All art work in palaces was dedicated to the kings who were the center of the world before theIndonesia independence.
1Company. Hence, there were four royal palaces in a relatively small area.
Mangkunegaran was one of these royal palaces. The royal families of each of thesefour palaces lost political power and focused instead on culture. They competed witheach other aiming to reconstruct the “ideal type of old Javanese culture”4 based on
their knowledge of the Majapahit kingdom. As a result, artistic activities thrived andeach palace started to develop a distinct style of dance, music, puppetry, literature,and even clothing. The creation of Langendriyan was greatly affected by this politicalsituation.
However, the question remains why was this all-woman dance drama developedin the Mangkunegaran palace, and not in another palace? I propose that it was related
to the women’s social status at Mankunegaran. In Mangkunegaran, women enjoyedrelative equality with men from its beginning. They were given jobs according to theirability rather than societal conventions, which would have been unlikely in otherpalaces. They were selected as soldiers, clerks for the palace, delegates to different
palaces, dancers and musicians. Women held important positions related to politics,
defense, economy, and culture in the society of Mangkunegaran.5 Thus, there wasenough social ground for an all-woman dance drama to develop in Mangkunegaran.
Also, Langendriyan had a role in connecting the palace to the common people.
Actually, in Surakarta, Langendriyan was born among the common people and later
accepted into Mangkunegaran. This occurred because the kings of Mankunegaran
were close to the common people.6 Even after Langendriyan entered into the
Mangkunegaran, the common people were able to enjoy Langendriyan performances,which was impossible in the other palaces.7 From these facts, we could also say that
the Mangkunegaran had a distinctive character of openness and was free from old
traditions.
There were several other important factors related to the genesis of Langendriyan.
The first one was that the economy of Mangkunegaran became successful in thesecond half of the nineteenth century from the profits of coffee, sugar, spice, and rice4

Kenji Tsuchiya, “Jogjakarta—Formation and Expansion of ＜Capital＞in Central Java.
(Jogjakarta—Chubu Jawa ni okeru ＜miyako＞no seiritsu to tenkai）”, South-east Asian Studies(Tonan Asia Kenkyu) 21-1, June 1983, p. 22.
5Hilmiyah Darmawan Pontjowolo, R. Ay., Peranan Wanita Mangkunagaran Dari Masa ke Masa,(Surakarta, 1993), p. 4.
6About the affinity of the kings of Mangkunegaran and the common people, see, Zainuddin Fananie,
Restrukturisasi Budaya Jawa: Perspekrif KGPAA MN I, Muhammadiyah University Press, Surakarta,
1994, pp. 144-145, also see, W.E. Soetomo Siswokartono, Sri Mangkuknagara IV: sebagai
Penguasa dan Pujangga, Semarang, 2006, p. 126.
7
Wahyu Santoso Prabowo et al., Sejarah Tari—Jejak Langkah Tari di Pura Mangkunagaran,
Surakarta, ISI press, 2007, p. 109.

cultivation.8 The other one was that the construction of the Mangkunegaran
government was reformed in 1867 and one section, named Langenpraja, specialized
in managing artistic activities in the palace.9 This section had the performers called
teledek, who were women sing while dancing. By having Langenpraja and teledek inthe organization, Mangkunegaran already had a foundation to receive Langengriyan
from the common people and develop it into the notable art of Mangkunegaran.
Thus, we could say the genesis of Langendriyan was precipitated by a mixture ofpolitical and economic factors, the state of art and culture in the palace, the status of
women, and Mangkunegaran’s tradition of being close to the common people.
Another important factor is that according to Sisiwokartono, for Mangkunegaran,
around the time of creation of Langendriyan, the establishment of its own art styles(like the creation of this new dance drama) was one means of strengthening the social
position of Mangkunegaran to elevate its status closer to other larger Javanesecountries.10 When the Mataram kingdom was divided into four parts, Mangkunegaran
received much less land than two other larger countries. Also, it was not permitted topractice the Mataram ritual of succession, which includes the sacred dance, one of thesymbols or treasures of king of Mataram.
Expression of Langendriyan
Now, I will analyze the expression of cross-gendered performance inLangendriyan from the following angles: performers (dancers), movement, costume,and makeup, and singing.
Generally, Javanese dance dramas were greatly influenced by the Javanese
shadow puppetry play, and the pattern of distinguishing features of the characters in
the play, like temperament, personality, and body shape, were traditionallyestablished. For example, the villain’s role has a large body and vulgar character. On
the contrary, the hero has a thin figure, thin eyes, a slightly lowered head, asophisticated and elegant character, and spiritual strength. In Langendriyan, aperformer who suits the traditional characteristic of a certain role was chosen. In
other words, Langendriyan has an appearance, which follows the traditional
expression of the roles.

8

R. M. Mr. A. K. Pringgodigdo, Geschidenis der Ondernemingen van het Mangkoenagorosche
Rijik, ‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1950, p. 45, also, Soetomo, op. cit., p. 173.
9
Soetomo, op. cit., p. 146., also, Harmanto, 130 tahun Langen Praja Mangkunagaran, 1997, pp.
2-3.
10 W.E. Soetomo Siswokartono, Sri Mangkunagara IV: sebagai Penguasa dan Pujangga,
Semarang, 2006, pp. 246-247

Speaking of movement, in Javanese traditional dance there is a certain style foreach character. There are three major styles which are the “female style,” the “refinedmale style,” and the “rough male style,” and each style has an established position
and way of moving. Accordingly, it is possible for an audience to understand thecharacter from the movement, and not from the gender of the performer. This factreveals why women can play male characters.
If that is the case, is there any difference in expression between male characters
acted by men and male characters acted by women in Langendriyan? If we lookcarefully, there is a slight but definite difference, especially in the “rough male style.”
As for position of the body, there is not much difference. However, when they actually
move, the impression given to an audience is very different because especially thewidth of movement side to side at the center of the body's stomach area, is very
different. Because of this fact, a rough male character acted by a woman is often
criticized for the expression of the rough character not being appropriate.
However, I judge the important point is that in Langendriyan the expression of
the rough male character is not required to be so strong as when acted by a male
performer. I myself studied the rough and villainous male character called
Menakjingga, and when I was in training, my teacher often warned me “don’t dance sostrongly.” Even the positions of arms and legs are in the “rough male style,” but I was
required to move in a relatively refined way. To be more precise, in Langendriyan, theexpression required for a rough male character is not as strong as a traditional
expression, but rather keeping the elegance and the beauty of woman are required.
This is a distinguishing feature of the cross-gendered performance’s esthetic
expression in Langendriyan.
The costume is also stylized and helps to express the characters in the play. For
example, the color red is mostly used for the characters with a rough and sharp
temperament, and for the refined characters, blue and green are often used. The
headdresses are also peculiar to most of the characters. I could say this style of thecostumes is one of the tools for an audience to understand the characters in the play.
Looking from a cross-gender perspective, a noticeable point is the makeup,
especially, the makeup for rough and villainous male characters. Usually in traditional
Javanese dance, for the makeup for villainous male characters, red color is applied to
the whole face and expresses roughness. However, for villainous male characters in
Langendriyan, like Menakjingga, the makeup for a beautiful woman is used, and only
the eyebrows are drawn slightly thick and sharp. From this fact, we can see that theperformers of rough characters in Langendriyan are not trying to completely becomemen, but rather acting as women, and acting like men is also not important. In thispoint, there is a linkage between the makeup and the movement.
Next is the song. Listening to the melodies of the song used in Langendriyan, we
can hear the male characters and the female characters are singing in the same vocal
range. It is hard to understand whether characters are a male or female by only
listening to the song. From the aspect of song, there is not much differentiation
between male characters and female characters in Langendriyan.
Now, I will summarize the expression of the cross-gendered performance inLangendriyan. Generally in Javanese traditional dance, the feature of each characteris traditionally established from the influence of shadow puppetry play. The characters
are expressed by stereotypical and differentiated “styles” of movement and costume.
These “styles” can be considered as a reflection of Javanese traditional concepts of thedifference between man and woman, mental habits, and fixed ideas as sociallyaccepted ideas. Although the cross-gendered performance of the Langendriyan isvalid because of the traditional “style,” it does not totally follow the traditional “style”
and use an ambiguous setting.
The effect of cross-gendered performance and relationship with thecircumstances of the genesis of Langendriyan
What is the effect of cross-gendered performances on Langendriyan on theaudience? I propose that the well-categorized, differentiated, and systematizedcosmology of Javanese society is confused by the performance of Langendriyan. It is
not only a matter of the style of a movement and makeup, but a view of the Javanese
world, which also gets confused.
There is an important Javanese worldview, which is, “in the world, there isalways conflict between good and evil and by keeping the balance between them, thisworld can exist. The forces of the evil are as important as the forces of the good andthey cannot be lost.” This is deeply reflected in the Javanese traditional dramas, andthe conflicts, and battles between good and evil are often taken as materials. However,in Langendriyan, a beautiful woman acts an ugly villainous character. In other words,
a reversal or inversion of the image occurs. By beautiful women playing ugly evil
characters, the ugliness and evil of the characters are less emphasized, and the scene
becomes peculiar and unpredictable. It gives the audience an interesting and different
image that they have never experienced and can stimulate creativity. Also, theboundary gender that can be called “the third gender,” which is the mixture of man
and woman, but neither man nor woman, appears here.

A reversal phenomenon like cross-gendered performance can release
restrictions. Also, by creative denial of the ordinary state in which a male characterhas to be manly, it can break fixed ideas, give a stimulus and tension to mental habit,
and give a sort of confusion that makes an audience rethink traditional concepts.
In the performance of Langendriyan, the fixed image of the character which isexpressed by traditionally established style of movements and costumes is inverted
and reversed by the expression of cross-gender between performer and performed
character. Furthermore, fixed social ideas, associated with styles, are inverted andreversed simultaneously. As mentioned earlier, for Mangkunegaran, theestablishment of its own art styles, like the creation of this new dance drama, was one
means of strengthening its social position. From this point of view, I propose that thecreation, development, and performance of Langendriyan symbolically demonstrate
Mangkunegaran’s intent of reversing or inverting the well-systematized cosmology of
the Javanese.
The influence on local community
Then, what kind of influence did this dance drama have on the local community,
especially the artistic community in the city of Surakarta? In Central Java, after the
independence of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945, the territories of all royal families
became properties of the Republic. The royal families lost most of their economic
infrastructure and could not keep the position of patron of artistic activities. Many
court artists left the courts, and after that Langendriyan was rarely performed in
Mangkunegaran palace. After the nineteen seventies, Langendriyan started to be
performed outside the palace with performers who do not have a relation with thepalace. Mainly, it was included in the curriculum of the art high school and the artcollege in Surakarta. Also, new dance pieces were created based on or influenced byLangendriyan and had a favorable impact upon the other dance dramas. However,outside the palace, the fact of the rough evil character being played by a woman was
not accepted. And far from that, it was criticized because it was not suited to the
traditional expression of this certain character. Even more recently, I could see thatrealistic expressions in Javanese traditional dance have increased. In such a condition,
we could say that expression in Langendriyan is peculiar. I have to say thecross-gendered performance in Langendriyan could only exist in the palace, not in a
regular place so far.
Conclusion

In the present Javanese society, due to the effect of globalization, the decline of
the traditional arts is a matter of concern. However, there is a trend to revaluate thelocal values and cultural heritage and it is reaching to a peak, and there is a highpossibility that the importance of the expression of cross-gendered performance inLangendriyan shall be rediscovered in near future. It is possible that the free spirit ofexpression in Langendriyan, which is not a slave of established ideas, can stimulate
the society, and becomes one of the guides of cultural creation in Javanese society inthe future. From that point of view, I would like to closely examine the reception, the
new interpretation, and the creative development of Langendriyan in Javanese society
in the future.