Malay Dances

Abstract

This paper deals only with Malay dances of Peninsula Malaysia while those from East Malaysia are mentioned briefly. It begins with the history and development of Malay dance, then examine in some detail four types of Malay dances, and concludes with an overview of the common movements and choreographic elements in Malay dance. When discussing the history of Malay dance, one needs to take into account the influences of neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and of course, India. And one must also view it from the geographical and economic perspectives of the Malay world which encompassed parts of Indochina, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Elements of dance in the Malay world first appeared during primitive times when the natives developed various forms of ritual consisting of movements and music in their effort to placate and appease the natural phenomena of which they were ignorant. One can surmise that there already existed various forms of ritualistic dances by the time the natives came into contact with the Indians sometimes before the Christian era. It is believed that the Indians, besides engaging in the usual trading activities, also brought with them aspects of their culture such as dance and music. And with the setting up of the Indianised state of Funan (1-627 AD), elements of music and dance must have spread to the other parts of the empire. Elements of Indian dances and music must have also existed in the successive empires of Sri Vijaya, in Palembang, South Sumatra, Majapahit in Java, and Malacca on the Malay peninsula. The empires of Funan, Sri Vijaya, Majapahit, and Malacca encompassed the present day Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, Thailand, and parts of Indochina and Philippines, and together they were regarded as one cultural entity, namely, the Malay world. During the heyday of each empire, trade and cultural interactions must have been carried out between its various parts. Thus, it is not surprising to find similarities in the dances of present day countries of this region. One could speculate that during this period there existed two broad types of dances, the folk and the court. However, in both there existed elements of Animism and Hinduism.