PBOX Cultural Education – Cultural Workshop

On Friday, 19th March 2010, PBoX Cultural Education “Love the Culture, Live the Tradition, Bridge the Diversity” held its first learning event, the “CULTURAL WORKSHOP”. This is where we, the Indonesians, preserve our culture by learning the traditional music and dances. Thirty participants came along and had a blast of fun. We also supported by the students learning groups from several universities in Bandung. They are the trainers for the Papua Dance from Parahyangan University, the trainers for the Saman Dance from the Legal Faculty of Padjajaran University, and the trainers for Angklung from the Bandung Institute of Technology. This event started at two o’clock in the afternoon and ended up by eight in the evening at the Parahyangan University.

The event was sectioned into three sessions and the participants were grouped into two. In the first sessions, each group separately learned the Saman and Papua Dance. For the Saman Dance, the participants should sit on the floor, with both legs folded. The participants also had to learn the singings while moving their arms and clapping their hands. It’s a beautiful dancing from the western part of Indonesia, Nangroe Aceh Darussalam. Meanwhile, the Papua Dance was all about the fast-moving feet and jumping energetically. Papua Dance came from the big island with the similar name in the eastern part of Indonesia. All the participants gathered in one group to learn how to play the traditional musical instrument, Angklung, came from West Java. Then, in the last sessions, the participants once again divided into two groups and swap the dancing lessons. When the lessons were finished, all the participants danced the Saman and Papua Dance together beautifully.

By learning, doing, and loving our own culture, we understand about our identity as one country, and from that point we could possibly make an attempt to understand more culture as one’s identity, and bridge the diversity to make peace across nations. It was a very fun, educating, and inspiring workshop!

Contributor: Tanya Edwina