Heroic Figures’ Characters in Wayang Wong Dance Drama: A Character Education For The Elementary School Students?

Jurnal Ilmiah Lingua Idea Vol. 12, No. 1, June, pp.69-83 Website: http://jos.unsoed.ac.id/index.php/jli/ Heroic Figures’ Characters in Wayang Wong Dance Drama: A Character Education for the Elementary School Students? Farida Nuryantiningsih*, Sri Nani Hari Yanti Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Indonesia *, DOI: 10.20884/1.jli.2021.12.1.3432 Article History: First Received: 26/10/2020 Final Revision: 19/06/2021 Available online: 30/10/2021 ABSTRACT Wayang Wong is one Javanese traditional dance drama combining drama arts and wayang performance. The stories in Wayang wong performances are taken from Mahabarata and Ramayana. Many stories presented through wayang wong performances give various life examples through each figure’s characters. Of those contained in wayang wong performances, this article only selected the figures from Mahabarata story as not only well known by the society like Gatotkaca, Arjuna, Bima/Werkudara, or Kresna, but also many Mahabarata story figures have good characters appropriate to become the examples for the character education at schools. Love, forgiveness, patience. responsibility, helpfulness, and other good characters belong to the Mahabarata story protagonist figures. This descriptive qualitative research used a cultural approach by identifying wayang wong figures’ characters in both Ramayana and Mahabharata stories. The research data were collected using literature reviews on various relevant references to wayang wong to dig and obtain the descriptions of the wayang wong figures’ characters in both Mahabharata and Ramayana stories as the character education for elementary school students. This article is greatly interesting because by introducing the protagonist figures through wayang wong performances, the children from Javanese ethnicity are expected to have good characters sourced from the local cultures. This is important because by knowing wayang figures, children are taught to love and conserve their nation’s cultures. Keywords: heroic figures; wayang wong; character education INTRODUCTION Wayang wong is a traditional art possibly enjoyed by all community levels. wayang wong traditional arts also contain various noble values. The values taught in wayang wong performances include human life teachings, the relationship between humans and nature as well as between God and humans. Wayang wong is a genre of traditional dance drama and the personification of wayang kulit purwa which stories are taken from Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. Wayang wong appeared in Surakarta Mangkunegaran Palace and Yogyakarta Kasultanan Palace in the middle of 69 Heroic Figures’ Characters in Wayang Wong Dance Drama: A Character Education for the Elementary School Students? (Farida Nuryantiningsih, Sri Nani Hari Yanti) 18th century (Supendi, 2007). Wayang wong is one traditional palace theatre developed by the Mataram kingdom (now Surakarta and Yogyakarta area). In wayang wong performance, there is a combination of literary art (role/theatre), musical art, painting art, and semiotics (Wardani & Widiyastuti, 2013). Wayang wong performance can be used as information, education, entertainment, and other media to understand the philosophical values of Javanese culture that wayang wong has the power as a show and guidance. Wayang wong is the personification form of wayang purwa since the story structure, character selection, and language used in wayang wong are similar to those in wayang purwa. In wayang wong, the actors or actresses use dance and song as the dialog between figures. Thus, actors and actresses in wayang wong performance should be able to dance and sing. Rustopo (2007) mentioned that the history of wayang wong in Surakarta started from the Keraton of Kadipaten Mangkunegara, which was at that time, under the government of Prince Adipati Mangkunegara I (1757-1796). Wayang wong was born when the Javanese literature experienced the renaissance period in the XVIII-XIX century marked by the kakawin (Ancient Java) writing in the new Javanese literary language. Meanwhile, Supadma (2015) mentioned that wayang wong first appeared in Ngayogyakarta Palace at the time of Hamengku Buwono I in 1757 which was then developed by the next Sultans. Wayang wong was initially performed for the important state ritual ceremony only. However, since 1918, the founder of Kridha Beksa Wirama (KBW), G. P. H Tejakusuma and P Soerjodiningrat, who was the son of Sultan Hamengku Buwana VII, successfully brought the dance out of the palace and was positively welcomed by the society with the Sultan’s permission. Since then, wayang wong successfully passed through the palace and got positive responses from the common people level. As one adiluhung artwork, wayang wong has an important role in the Javanese culture as the Javanese identity. Wayang wong art performance has two styles (in Javanese known as gagrak) consisting of gagrak Surakarta and gagrak Yogyakarta showing the wealth of Javanese people’s culture although that two gagrak were born as the result of the colonial’s political strategy of divide et impera to divide and conquer the sole entity of Mataram Sultanate. Each gagrak has its history, development story, and dynamics starting from behind the palace walls until its development outside the palace. In Yogyakarta, wayang wong was first created by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I with the Gandawerdaya play, while in Surakarta, Mangkunegara I had the Wijanarka play. The Gandawerdaya play contains the patriotism spirit taken from the epic of Mahabharata particularly expressing the patriotism of the brave Pandawa knights in defending the truth and fighting against 70 Jurnal Ilmiah Lingua Idea Vol. 12, No. 1, June, pp.69-83 Website: http://jos.unsoed.ac.id/index.php/jli/ the crafty Kurawa (Bimo, 2014). The patriotism spirit in wayang wong was presented by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I remembering the time when the Sultan was facing the Dutch forces. Wayang wong in Yogyakarta Sultanate is a very modest group dance as not focusing on the sparkling costumes and other instruments, but creating a strong spirit and appreciation of the figures’ characters. Thus, Yogyakarta’s classical dancing style including wayang wong shows a more classical characteristic than Surakarta’s which has a more romantic sense. By maintaining its classical characteristics, Yogyakarta’s dancing style is known as joged mataram. Meanwhile, Surakarta’s dancing style is known as yasa enggal or creating the new one. Besides costumes, the difference between Yogyakarta’s and Surakarta’s dancing style is related to their dialog intonations. The dialog intonations in Surakartan wayang wong are more realistic following the emotional levels and happening situations with various intonations, while those in Yogyakarta are more monotonous. Although there is a style or gagrak difference in Yogyakartan and Surakartan wayang wong, the stories or plays presented from those two palaces are similarly based on (...truncated)