THE CREATION OF SURAKARTA AND YOGYAKARTA STYLES
The
appearance of separate Surakarta and Yogyakarta styles of Javanese
dancing was the result of the splicting of the Mataram, kingdom
into two in 1755, when Mataram. was divided into the Surakarta and
the Yogyakarta kingdoms.
The
dances developing in West Java centred in the kingdoms of Banten
and Cirebon also produced an individual style, differing from the
Java or Central Java style, and better known as the Sunda style.
Nowadays if Indonesian people refer to Javanese dancing, they mean
Central Java style, which can be further differentiated into the
Surakarta and Yogyakarta styles, whereas they use the term Sunda
style to refer to West Javanese dances.
Again
it should be emphasized, although the Dutch broke up Surakarta into
the kingdom of Surakarta and the smaller Mangkunegaran and the English
split Yogyakarta into the kingdoms of Yogyakarta and the smaller
Pakualam, the breaking up of Mataram. into four parts brought forth
only two styles of Javanese dancing, namely, the Surakarta style
and the Yogyakarta style.
These two styles have undergone rapid progress since the second
.half of the 18th century, which was marked by the creation of three
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