UGM Dance Team won the first winner in the 11st Regional Student Art Week (Peksimida). The victory made the team entitled to represent Yogyakarta Province at a similar event at the national level called the National Student Art Week (Peksiminas) which will take place from July 1 to 6 in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).
The regional selection held at Sanatha Dharma University (USD) Yogyakarta on May 25 was followed by nine contingents from seven universities in Yogyakarta. The event was also followed by teams from Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia Art Institute (ISI) of Yogyakarta, Sanata Dharma University, Ahmad Dahlan University, Atma Jaya University of Yogyakarta and IKIP PGRI. "In the selection, UGM sent a team that performed the Candu Raras dance and managed to become the champion. They will represent Yogyakarta in the National Student Art Week in July," Chairman of UGM Dance Production Team, Dani Trisno Nugroho, said on Tuesday (29/5) at UGM.
Dani conveyed that Candu Raras Dance is a dance work choreographed by Lita Sudiati, member of the Surakarta Javanese Art Style Unit (UKJGS) UGM. Meanwhile, the accompaniment was arranged by Tatag Waruju Priangga Wikan while the costume stylist was Robi Aji Trisantoso. Both are members of UKJGS. Candu Raras dance team consists of seven students from Balinese Dance, Swagayugama, and UKJGS units. The seven dancers are Lita Sudiati, Odila Tamioyi, Lucky Krisnawati Utami, Narulita Ayu S. K., Sholiha Wardati, Hesty Budi Nugraheni and Dian Kusuma Wardani.
"This dance team is a combination of three units of student activities (SMEs) which are UKJGS, Swagayugama, and Bali Dance," the student of International Relations Department class 2009 said.
Dani said further, the competition in the regional selection is quite tight. The event was followed by a number of universities which sent qualified dance teams and often became winners. "We did not think to be the best because the other teams also featured nice dance. The obvious thing, we are always trying to show the best in every performance and competition, including in the regional selection," he explained.
He said the toughest competitors in the competition were teams from ISI and UNY which often won competitions. "The toughest competitor is ISI. They sent two teams that eventually won the second and third places," Dani said.
He said the UGM dance team won the competition for presenting dance as a whole in the form of a symbol of the movement. Meanwhile, other contingents actually showed theatrical and artificial dances. "Most of the other teams were presenting dance using spoken language in the show. While we performed a dance through a symbol of movement and choreography," he explained.
In order to face the upcoming the National Student Art Week, currently UGM dance team continues to practice and improve their performance. We try to include more Yogyakartan elements into Candu Raras Dance. "The target is we can enter the top five in the event, and hopefully becoming the winner,” he explained.
Candu Raras dance that lasted about 12.5 minutes is about the dancers that can make the audience captivated and inspired by Taledhek folk art known as Ledhek. Ledhek has existed since the Ancient Java that was recorded on the Poh inscription in 905 AD. It was also depicted in the Karmawibhangga reliefs on Borobudur temple which describes a group of beautiful girls in the crowd dancing to the accompaniment of gamelan music from one place to another. At the time, dance was a very popular entertainment, it even gave honor for the people who hosted the Ledhek show. But today Ledhek has disappeared. "Rara mabhramana tinonton the werehwerehnya, a pretty girl is dancing around and watched by the men. Candu Raras comes here, we dance to entice your heart," he concluded.
UGM Gelanggang Manager, Wahyu Sujarwo, S.IP., delivered of the 15 categories in the Regional Student Art Week, UGM only sent teams in nine categories. UGM also sent a representative in the vocal group category, the comic strip, pop singing, writing stories, writing poetry, reading poetry, monologue, and keroncong. Achievement was also made in several other categories, including vocal group category (runner-up), male poetry reading and singing, keroncong (third place), and male pop singing (third place and consolation prize), monologue (first and second consolation prize winner), poetry writing and short story writing (first consolation prize).