ABOUT MY CULTURE [A STEEMIT STORY CHALLENGE]
Saman and Seudati, Twin Dances That Need to Be Preserved
In this post I want to write about Aceh-Indonesia culture, that is twin dance; Saman and Seudati from Samudera Pasai (Pasee). Why did I choose this topic? Because the dance saman and seudati have historical value is high enough in the spread of Islam in the archipelago.
Another reason, because the current twin dance began to be abandoned generation today, so threatened to disappear. The proof, in mid-January 2018, the State Senior High School 1 Lhoksukon-Aceh, Indonesia held an art performance with the race of Saman Duek (Standing Dance) and Student-level Seudati for Lhokseumawe and North Aceh-Aceh, Indonesia. In the district / city has hundreds of schools that are equal to Senior High School.
But only 10 schools, which consist of 9 schools in Aceh Utara District and one school in Lhokseumawe City. The purpose of the art performances are held to preserve saman and seudati also to motivate students to want to learn dance seudati and saman, so that they can love the culture so will be awake.
Information obtained from the school, many other schools do not follow these activities because there is no guidance on saman and seudati. Even if there is coaching, but still minimal, so dare not appear in public. Inikan problem for saman and seudati preservation.
Why did it happen? One of the factors is because of the prolonged conflict in Aceh, so that during the conflict period the community did not hold any activities such as the art competition and other activities, so that all art activities were really vacuum. Before the conflict ended peacefully, there was a devastating tsunami disaster.
So that all activities of the community towards the activities of art and other activities vacuum. Because at that time Aceh entered the rehab and reconstruction for four years. Because of the many problems that occurred after the conflict and the tsunami, so the government focused more on development activities. While the arts activities began to be neglected.
Why do I write about saman and seudati, what makes the same thing and seudati special for me? Because seudati and saman include local culture that comes from our region (Samudera Pasai / Pasee). Then saman dan seudati dance is also a meda communication to convey advice (advice or moral message) to the wider community. So this is a dance that contains educational values.
This dance is played at least eight people and maximum 17 people. Each group has one leader or called a syeh who gives the group members cues. Usually begins with messages that mendidk. Seudati and Saman also include culture as a means of communication for religious leaders to spread Islam in the 18th century.
So saman and seudai have a high historical value in the spread of Islam and then developed to other provinces such as Palembang, Kalimantan and also to the African countries. However, it is now beginning to wear off, so I hope that through this post the future saman and seudati become one of the cultures that must be preserved and developed.