Re-Interpretation of Pakarena Dance

The dance that teach human for being grateful to Gods.

Ten female dancers who dressed in yellow rounded the six male of percussion players. The players played attractively. Once in a while the sounds of little trumpet broke the percussion stamped. The rhythms of percussion music were solid, hard and fast but on the contrary the dancers moved slowly. Although the music was very cheerful, the dancers moved slowly as if to fight the cheerful. In the next part, the dancers hold a stick fan, rounded their body in the same direction as the hand of clock. This round symbolized the human life cycles.

This is the parts of the performance of “Akkarena Sombali”, a contemporary dance the works of Wiwiek Sipala who being inspired by Pakarena, the traditional dance from Makassar, South Sulawesi, which growth since the 14th century. “Somabali” means kembara, reflected the Pakarena form which come from the united of Pakarena variants that widely known.

This dance started from the myth of the separation of the Gods-Goddess who lived in “boting” (heaven) with the inhabitant of “lino” (earth). The Gods-Goddess came down from heaven and lived with the earth inhabitants teaching the human about the life customs and manners, engaged in farming, breed animals, hunted, discussion, and mutual cooperation. When the Gods-Goddess had to leave, the earth inhabitants expressed their gracefulness through the movements and ever since called Pakarena.

The Pakarena movements are the contrast between the beautiful, rhythmical, dynamic music with the gentle and slow movements but straight. In the past, Pakarena performance played from three to seven days, started
at 4 p.m until dawn. Wiwiek Sipala made it short for only 28 minutes.

Wiwiek Sipala deepen the Pakarena since 1963. She explored this traditional dance moves for her thesis study. In 1979, she performed “Akkarena” to Makassar public. In 2002, it was performed in Institute Kesenian (Arts Institute) Jakarta. The original Pakarena had 12 parts. But, Wiwiek performed just nine parts. The rest is not explored yet.

The dancers of Akkarena were not allowed to open their eyes too wide. The leg movements could not too high. The dancer costume was simple. Wiwiek removed the gold flower accessories that usually was wore in the head. She focused in the moves.

In the stage, every part looks the same. But it had different meaning. It started with sit position and ended with also sit position. The round moves followed the cycle of life from birth until death. The up- down moves described the rhythm of life. It was the inspiration from the fourteenth century.