Zapin
OUTSIDE the night was pitch-black and raining. Lit by a portable power generator, the stage inside was the scene of dancers, young and old, gracefully and spiritedly moving their feet back and forth to the rhythm of music played on gambus and marwas. That was Semarak Zapin Serantau, a regional zapin dance festival recently held in the small town of Bengkalis in Central Sumatra’s Riau province. Tempo reports on the festival which, despite the rain, made an impressive show of the traditional Malay dance.
September 25, 2007
SELAT Baru is a small village located in Bantan about 13 kilometers east of the capital of the Riau district of Bengkalis. That Sunday, September 2, it was raining heavily. Dance groups from Batam, Karimun, Pekanbaru, and Singapore, dressed for the occasion, were preparing to perform zapin, the traditional Malay dance. Apprehensively, they looked up at the sky hoping the rain would stop.
The performers should have been on the stage performing th
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