Do you want to see me dancing? No, no and no… I don’t want to dance and I will never want to dance simply because I just don’t know how to dance. I’ve tried a few times dancing but suddenly I saw myself as a penguin who just learns how to walk. Not to mention all the laughs I got from my friends when they saw me dancing. I still remember when I was in kindergarten when we were forced to perform all the cultural dances especially Zapin whenever there was a ceremony in the school. At that time, it was such an honour for being able to get on the stage and receive the big applause from the audience. I was so proud of myself at that time, not until my brother mocked my dancing steps later when we got back home. At that moment, I realized I am a bad dancer. So, I told myself not to dance in public anymore.
Forget about the dancing story. Who cares whether we know how to dance or not. It’s just one of my weaknesses but I do hope things will change later. I know this might sound funny to you but I do have a dream to join the dancing lesson with Linda Jasmine huhuhu… dream on… well, back to the story, I think it’s fine for not knowing how to perform our own cultural dance but we should at least have some knowledge about it in our mind. The question is how much do we know about our cultural dances. Wait a minute; does it really matter to know these craps? We are living in the 21st century with all the technologies and modernizations around us. Do we still need to preserve this kind of thing? Well, it really depends on who you are and how you think about it. If I were to answer, I will definitely say yes.
Forget about the dancing story. Who cares whether we know how to dance or not. It’s just one of my weaknesses but I do hope things will change later. I know this might sound funny to you but I do have a dream to join the dancing lesson with Linda Jasmine huhuhu… dream on… well, back to the story, I think it’s fine for not knowing how to perform our own cultural dance but we should at least have some knowledge about it in our mind. The question is how much do we know about our cultural dances. Wait a minute; does it really matter to know these craps? We are living in the 21st century with all the technologies and modernizations around us. Do we still need to preserve this kind of thing? Well, it really depends on who you are and how you think about it. If I were to answer, I will definitely say yes.
I am a pure Jawanesse blood. My mother comes from Batu Pahat while my father comes from Segamat and both of them are pure Jawanesse. I am proudly saying that i’m a Jawanesse yet, I don’t even know how to speak Jawanesse. What a shame. I always blame myself for not being able to be one hundred percents Jawanesse. I’ve tried many times to learn from my parents but it still didn’t work. My parents once told me about my ancestors at Pulau Jawa, Sumatera where most of the Jawanesse people in Malaysia were migrated from there. Since the Pulau Jawa’s story was told, I cannot stop myself to think about it. I wished I could visit my “original” place where I could meet my own people, experience myself as a Jawanesse people and the most important thing, being able to learn all the traditions and cultural dances.
When I was young, my father always brought whenever he needed to attend functions and ceremonies. Most of the times, I fell asleep as soon the ceremony begun except this one-in-a-lifitime-experience. I don’t remember what function is but I do remember what was happening on that night. It was a closing performance of “Kuda Kepang” by Yayasan Warisan Johor. What happened was 2 dancers were being possessed by the spirits of “Kuda Kepang” and I actually saw how the spirits get into them and it was frightening. They were dancing actively and later they started fighting until one of them got hurt. The scariest part was I felt that all the horses were actually alive. The performance was getting out of control. Some said the spirit of “Kuda Kepang” was angry because the dancers did not follow the rules exactly. I don’t know what the rules are but it must be something scary also. Suddenly, the master of the group appeared and cured the two possessed dancers by rubbing their faces with water.
Some people belief that there is no such thing like ghost and spirit. It’s hard to believe things that you cannot see through your eyes. The only thing I know is you cannot put these spirits things away when you want to talk about the cultural dance.
