Holiday Ayo - The hands of the young dancers began to swing. His legs back and forth and tiptoe in such a way. Her hips bobbed as her head swung to the rhythm of her hips. Kromong gamelan music regulates the tempo of their agile movements. That's the ronggeng blantek dance or sometimes it's written as the blantek dance.

Renggong Blantek dance is a dance creation rooted in Betawi folk performances during the Dutch colonial period, this dance also enriches the repertoire of Indonesian dance.

Ronggeng blantek is a new dance creation that was taken from Betawi folk theater , namely the blantek mask. Mask is a term for acting or comedy, while the name blantek is taken from the sound of the accompanying music which always reads "blang blang tek tek".

In the past, the blantek mask itself was a folk theater performance that was usually staged to entertain the landlords. The blantek mask usually tells about the life of the Betawi people which is packed with jokes.

source: Kompas.com

The blantek mask show is usually opened or preceded by a ronggeng dance. In its development, this dance was released and the choreographer packaged his own creative form into the Ronggeng Blantek dance which was performed separately.

The emergence of ronggeng blantek cannot be separated from the Betawi arts development project held by the DKI Jakarta regional government since 1970. This is based on the fact that the rapid modernization has more or less marginalized Betawi traditional arts. So, a Betawi Tradition Workshop was held to raise awareness of the Betawi community for its existence.

Various dances are created based on traditions that have long existed in Betawi culture. However, it was only in 1978 that the DKI Jakarta Culture Service developed the Ronggeng blantek dance as a new dance creation.

Iin general the Ronggeng Blantek dance is divided into three parts of movement. The first part is graceful movements with a relaxed rhythm. The second part, the rhythm starts quickly with energetic dance moves. And third, the ronggeng blantek dance includes several Betawi silat movements as the climax.

source: Kompas.com

This dance is performed by 4-6 female dancers wearing brightly colored clothes. The dancer's costume consists of a pink kebaya, white tumpal cloth and a scarf with a Hong bird motif, red cross toka-toka, ampok, and napkins. Accessories on the head are a flower mask, three-tiered lotus necklace, pending, and yellow earrings. The use of the Hong bird or phoenix motif from Chinese mythology shows the presence of Chinese influence.

To accompany the ronggeng blantek dance, a Betawi mask gamelan is played, consisting of a fiddle, three kenong, and kecrek. Sometimes a tambourine is also used. In many variations, a combination of tanji musical instruments is often used, such as trumpet, trombone, baritone, drum, gong, cymbal, and tehyan.

Ronggeng blantek dance movements are very fast, energetic, and flexible. There are many terms or names in the unique basic movements of the ronggeng blantek dance: lenggang rongeh, ogek, surfing ngepik, pakblang, ngepak blonter, tepak ngarojeng, coma gelong, rocking cendol ijo, and so on.

In the past, the ronggeng blantek dance was performed as the opening act of the blantek mask show, now the dance is actually a complement to the mask show. In addition, the ronggeng blantek dance is performed at various Betawi cultural events and is often used to welcome guests who are considered noble.