West Papua is known for its beautiful tourist destinations and has unique cultural wealth, one of which is a traditional dance. Various types of West Papuan dances are cultural treasures that must be preserved.
The following is the original and noble dance from West Papua.
- Wutukala Dance
Wutukala is a traditional dance of West Papua, especially the people who live in the coastal area of Sorong.
This dance tells about the habits of the Moy people when looking for fish. They do it in pairs of men and women. Each team consists of 5-6 pairs of dancers.
They use traditional clothes and spear attributes for men and noken for women.
Their movements are distinctive with musical accompaniment such as ukulele, guitar, bass, and other musical instruments.
Costumes for male and female dancers are almost the same. They wear bottoms such as skirts made of roots and leaves with a head covering of Cendrawasih bird feathers complete with black and white ethnic nuances of body painting.
- War Dance
For the people of West Papua, the War Dance is very popular since it symbolises the bravery and heroism of the community. This dance includes colossal with an unlimited number of dancers.
The War Dance is usually performed by the people of the mountains when their tribal chief gives orders to fight. Accompanied by Tifa musical instruments, they sing war songs to raise spirits.
There is a message of unity that must be maintained behind this dance.
Like brave heroes, the dancers wear full traditional costumes such as skirts made of roots and beads to decorate the chest and leaves on the body.
- Tumbu Tana Dance
As an ancestral heritage from generation to generation, Tumbu Tana is one of the most famous traditional dances in West Papua, especially for the Arfak community.
There are three types of Tumbu Tana Dance which are often staged to welcome tourists or other artistic activities. They are Tumbu Tana for winning the war, Tumbu Tana for looking for a mate, and Tumbu Tana for welcoming guests.
It is an energetic dance with jumping movements while stomping on the ground and holding hands. Meanwhile, the accompanying song is a poem called nihet duwei, diun and isap.
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- Musnok Dance
Another traditional dance belonging to the people of the Arfak Mountains is the Musnok Dance. This original West Papuan dance tells the story of the spread of Christianity in Sorong City.
Musnok is a colossal dance with 20-50 dancers consisting of men and women.
Traditional musical instruments accompanying the Musnok Dance include bamboo flute, okulele, tifa, triton, coconut shell, and upsal.
- Ris Dance
Ris Dance is also known as Sifieris Dance. Ris is a traditional dance typical of the people of West Papua, which is generally performed to welcome certain traditional ceremonies.
For musical accompaniment is using musical instruments tifa, pondatu, gongs, or wamin. This dance is more enjoyable with singing lyrics that adjust the meaning of the ongoing ceremony.
- Balengan Dance
Balengan dance is synonymous with young people dancing. This original West Papuan dance is also called the youth social dance, performed in pairs.
The accompanying music or songs significantly affect the rhythm of the Balengan Dance.
Several musical instruments accompany this dance, such as a hollow guitar, a small guitar (juglele), a giant bass guitar, and a percussion instrument (tifa).
- Sajojo Dance
Taken from the story of a beautiful woman from a village who all the villagers, named Sajojo, love, the people of West Papua then make this name a distinctive dance – the Sajojo Dance.
Having an unusual movement with pounding feet and body movements, Sajojo becomes a welcome dance to welcome guests.
Initially, Sajojo Dance was performed during the war. The dancers use yellow feathers tied around their heads. This indicates the number of people who have died in tribal wars.
There are still many interesting traditional dances from West Papua to watch. The dance movements not only display beauty but also have deep philosophical meanings.
