Randai: The Traditional Narrative Dance Drama from West Sumatra

The traditional narrative dance drama of randai of the Minangkabau region of western Sumatra is embedded in complex cultural systems. Long following the custom of rantau, young Minangkabau men have left their villages to gain wealth and experience, and prestige upon return. This tradition “is thematically woven through the practice and content of randai.” Randai was preparation for the rantau, allowing elders to educate young men in proper conduct, expectations, and what to avoid on their 6- to 12-month journeys. Randai is both dance and theatrical performance. As noted by Craig Latrell in his Asian Theatre Journal article, “Widening the Circle”: “Since almost every randai story includes an episode in which the hero vanquishes comic villains using pencak silat, performances even today provide an opportunity to show off and perfect moves through hand-to-hand combat and dagger (keris) fighting.

A randai performance takes the shape of people sitting or moving around a circle. A musical ensemble accompanies the event, consisting of a flute, lute, small gongs, and drums. Before each scene, dancers perform in a ring, clapping hands and slapping legs. A song becomes the narration and actors sitting in the center of the ring engage in dialogues. All others remain squatting around the circle defining the perimeter of the performance. Costumes are black or white trousers, loose, and low-crotched. Mandarin collared shirts, beaded headcloths, and large sashes around waists complete randai apparel.

A form of folk entertainment, randai occurs after harvests or at special events. Randai works in complement to the rantau and the matrilineal system of the Minangkabau. The circle is eminently important to Minankabau culture, in that “it may symbolize unity, inclusiveness, or the union of seen and unseen halves of the cosmos.”1Circles or enclosed sacred spaces mark dances and rituals throughout Indonesia. Inclusion within a bounded social world is a prime Indonesian value. It then follows that “randai’s lingkaran [circle] expresses in performance terms something essential to the Minangkabau, which is repeated over and over in different ways in other areas of the culture.”15 This repetition of meaningful motifs binds many Indonesian societies to their pasts and their presents, empowering them to adapt to their futures.

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