Dance of Dayak (Borneo)

Gantar Dance This dance depicts a movement of farmer planting rice. The stick illustrates the beater while the bamboo and grains inside it illustrates rice seed and the container.
This dance is quite famous and is frequently performed in welcoming guests or at other occasions. This dance is not only known by Dayak Tanjung Tribe but also Dayak Benuaq Tribe. There are three versions of this dance: Gantar Raytn, Gantar Busai and Gantar Sekan/Gantar Kusak.

Kancet Papatai Dance / War Dance This dance tells about a Dayak Hero, Kenyah who fights against his enemy. The movement in this dance is very energetic, agile, and full of spirit and sometimes followed by dancers' shouting.
In this dance, the dancers wear traditional clothing of Dayak Kenyah tribe, along with war equipments such as mandau (Dayak sword), shield and armor. The dance is accompanied by Sak Paku song and it only uses Sampe instrument.

Kancet Ledo Dance / Gong Dance When Kancet Papatay depicts masculinity and strength of Dayak Kenyah men, the Kancet Ledo otherwise depicts the beauty of a woman as a rice plant blown by the wind.
The dance is performed by a women wearing traditional clothing of Dayak Kenyah Tribe and her both hands holding the feather of Enggang bird. Usually this dance is performed on top of a gong; therefore, it is also called Gong Dance.


Kancet Lasan Dance It depicts the life of Enggang bird, a noble bird as the symbol of glory and heroism. This dance is a single performance dance of Dayak Kenyah woman of which the movement and position is similar to Kancet Ledo Dance, but the dancer does not use gong and Enggang feathers and she mostly use lowering and squatting position with the knees touching the ground. This dance emphasizes the movements of Enggang bird while flying and perching on a tree branch.

Leleng Dance The Dance tells about a girl named Utan Along which would be forcefully married by her parent to a boy of whom she does not like. Utan Along finally ran away to the jungle. This dance of Dayak Kenyah Tribe is performed with Leleng songs.

Hudoq Dance The dance is performed by wearing a wooden mask resembling a beast and also two pieces of banana leaves or coconut leaves which wrap the dancer?s body. This dance has close relation with ritual ceremony from the tribes of Dayak Bahau and Modang. The purpose of Hudoq dance is to obtain strength in overcoming the disturbance of the pests and in a hope of land fertility to produce abundant harvest.

Hudoq Kita? Dance This dance of Dayak Kenyah is basically the same with Hudoq Dance of Dayak Bahau and Modang, as three of them are held for ceremony at the planting session or to express the gratitude to the gods that give good and abundant harvest. The prominent difference between Hudoq Kita' Dance and Hudoq Dance is on the costume, mask, the movement and the music companion. The costume wore by Hudoq Kita? Dances consists of long sleeve shirt and sarong, while the mask resembles human face decorated with special carving of Dayak Kenyah. There are two kinds of masks in Hudoq Kita? Dance, one is made of timber and the other is only a veil made of beads with Dayak Kenyah ornaments.

Serumpai Dance This Dayak Benuaq dance is performed to expel diseases epidemic and to cure people bitten by mad dog. It is called Serumpai because the dance is accompanied by Serumpai musical instrument (a kind of bamboo flute).

Belian Bawo Dance Belian Bawo ceremony is aimed to expel diseases, cure illness, pay nazar (vow) and so forth. After became a dance, it is frequently performed on guest welcoming and other art exhibition. It is a dance of Dayak Benuaq Tribe.

Kuyang Dance It is a Belian dance from Daya Benuaq tribe which is performed to dispel ghost dwelling in big and high tree so that they do not disturb human or person who chop the tree.

Pecuk Kina Dance This dance depicts the migration of Dayak Kenyah Tribe from Apo Kayan area (Kab. Bulungan) to the Long Segar area (Kab. Kutai Barat) which took years.

Datun Dance This dance is a communal dance of the Dayak Kenyah girl which has no definite number of dancers; it may consist 10 up to 20 girls. Based on history, this communal dance was created by a chief of Dayak Kenyah tribe in Apo Kayan named Nyik Selung as the expression of gratitude over the grandchildren birth. Then, this dance spread to entire Dayak Kenyah tribes.

Ngerangkau Dance
Ngerangkau Dance is the custom dance related to death in Dayak Tunjung and Benuaq Tribe. This dance uses rice beater equipment which is beaten regularly in a parallel position to produce certain rhythms.

Baraga' Bagantar Dance
In the beginning, Baraga? Bagantar is the ceremony to treat a baby by using the aid of Nayun Gantar. Nowadays, the ceremony is already recomposed into a dance by Dayak Benuaq tribe.

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