Sound of Minangkabau: A Concert of Music, Dance, Theater and Martial Arts from West Sumatra, Indonesia at Wesleyan

Free and open to the public

The concert weaves together the traditional music and dance of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra in Indonesia. Performances will include Randai and Tari Piring. Randai performances involve martial arts dances, songs, and acted-out scenes. Stories are delivered by both the acting and the singing and are mostly based upon Minangkabau legends and folktales.  The martial art form involved is best known as Pencak silat. That name is linked to the Minangkabau word silek, suggesting a Sumatran origin of both the term and the form. In Tari Piring, the Minangkabau plate dance, dancers perform choreography that requires them to balance plates in both hands which they turn in continuous circles relying on wrist flexibility, inertia and their sense of balance to keep the plates in place on their hands. These dances are most commonly performed in ceremonial contexts and for the welcoming of guests or, in this context, the welcoming of alumni and parents.

This concert is presented as part of the Wesleyan University Homecoming 2024 Residency by Members of Isi Padangpanjang, College of Fine and Performing Arts, West Sumatra Indonesia.

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