DOLANAN MABARONG-BARONGAN PERFORMING ARTS
OF BADUNG REGENCY AT THE BALI ARTS FESTIVAL XXXII (2010)

I Gusti Ayu Srinatih

Postgraduate Program
Udayana University, Denpasar

email: srinatih@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Dolanan is a childrens game which is done while singing in order to have fun. As one

of the cultural heritage, dolanan contains great national values which can be imparted into

children as the foundation of character building thus having a platform and a strong identity.
Nowadays dolanan is marginalized because children are more fond with various types of
imported games which is packaged with sophisticated technology that makes them
increasingly kept away from its own cultural roots. This reality is really concerning because
we can lose an effective tool in imparting cultural values which is important for character
building. Based on that reality, a research is conducted entitled “Dolanan Mabarong-
barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at the Bali Arts Festival XXXII in 2010”. The

problem that is the focus of this research is the factors that led to the creation of
representation of Dolanan Mabarong-barongan of Badung Regency in the XXXII Bali Arts

Festival in 2010. This research is a qualitative research, viewed from cultural studies
prespective. To dissect the problem, the social practices theory of Pierre Bourdieu is used.

The result of this research is that the factors that led to the creation of the
representation of dolanan mabarong-barongan are the Bali Arts Festival, the ideology of the

artist, the creativity of artists, community, arts education institutions, government policies,
and globalization.

Keywords: performing arts, dolanan mabarong-barongan, Bali Arts Festival.

BACKGROUND

In ancient times, dolanan lived and flourished in the community traditionally and was

carried down through generations, but is now less popular in the community. Dolanan

Mabarong-barongan is a children's game by imitating the Barong dance movements done

while singing in order to have fun. As one of the cultural heritage, dolanan contains noble

values of national culture that can be imparted into the children as the foundation of

character building so that they have a platform and a strong identity.

Today dolanan is increasingly marginalized because children prefer imported games

that are packed with sophisticated technology, therefore more and more children are "kept"

away from their own cultural roots. This reality is very worrying because we could lose one of

the effective means to impart cultural values which is very important for the formation of their

character. Based on the explanation, the research on dolanan entitled "Dolanan Mabarong-

barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in 2010" is

conducted. The problem in this study is the factors that led to the creation of the Dolanan

Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in

2010.

mailto:srinatih@gmail.com

RESEARCH METHOD

This research uses qualitative approach and reviewed from the perspective of cultures

studies. The data were collected using a document study, interviews, recordings, and

literature reviews. Methods and techniques of data analysis that includes three activities,

namely data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusion (verification) to finally get

the new findings. This research aims to study and understand in more depth the factors that

led to the creation of Dolanan Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at

the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in 2010". The benefits of this research are theoretical and

practical. Theoretically for the development of science and practically it will benefit the

choreografer.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Dolanan Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at the XXXII Bali

Arts Festival in 2010 is a new work of art that is a transformation from traditional Dolanan

Mabarong-barongan to performing arts as a form of the practice of meaning. This work of art

is accompanied by Children’s Gong Kebyar Rare Angon from SMP Negeri 2 Abiansemal,

Badung, and performed at the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in 2010.

The theory used to analyze the problem above is Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social

practice, which is (Habitus x Capital) + Field = Practice (in Richard Harker et al., Ed., 2009:

xx). This theory is used to examine how the artists look at the Dolanan Mabarong-barongan

performing arts as a social practice; that the artist has a “habitus” in order to produce a new

work of art (dolanan); they require “capital” in the form of creativity, experience, skills,

knowledge, and economics. In addition, the artist also require a “field” in the form of

objective network position, namely the academic community, artists, culture experts,

audiences, and government.

The factors that led to the creation of the new art works are as follows.

(1) Bali Arts Festival

Bali Arts Festival was implemented for the first time in 1979. As a new idea by Prof. Dr.

Ida Bagus Mantra, the Governor of Bali at the time, Bali Arts Festival received tremendous

reception and support, proven by the overflowing of audience watching each event. Today

the Bali Arts Festival is an annual event based in the Art Center in Denpasar. Bali Arts

Festival is an important space for creativity for the development of art and cultural life in Bali.

In the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in 2010 the Dolanan Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of

Badung Regency was created.

The government through its policies issued the Bali Regional Regulation No. 07 Year

1986 about Bali Arts Festival (Pangdjaja, 1997: ix) created development programs of art and

culture, one of which is to create regulations regarding arts festival. The goal, in addition to

keep, maintain, and develop the full potential of local art and culture, is also to give a room

for Balinese artists in developing their art creativity locally, nationally, and internationally.

The government's efforts can be seen from the XXXII Bali Arts Festival in 2010 that

have reached the age of thirty-two years. An achievement that should be appreciated

because in the history of art and culture performances in Indonesia, presumably only in Bali

that a cultural event in the form of a festival has held it for thirty-two years and ongoing.

(2) The Ideology of the Artist

The ideology of the artist as a creator becomes crucial because functionally it has a

very important role in the creation process of representation of Dolanan Mabarong-barongan

of Badung Regency. In this regard, the artist with the ideology is known as one of the agents

of change. Sztompka (2010: 225) explains that the agent was fully human and social which

consists of humans in the context of individual and humans as a collective agent. Therefore,

what is presented by Sztompka is basically making it clearer that the process of

modernization, the role of the artist as "individual agents", basically has a social network with

other arts communities. They are musicians, dancers, culture experts, stage manager,

audience, art educational institutions and the government, which in this context is referred to

as "collective agent".

Sumardjo (2000: 265) states that ideology of an artists is imaginary. Its presence is

strongly influenced by the artists socio-cultural background. Furthermore, J.S. Badudu (in

Kamus Umum Bahasa Indonesia, 1996: 525) states that ideology is a credo, bow or

ideological dogma. In this regard, ideology can be interpreted as an credo or doctrine done

by the artists for its occupied arts. If it is associated with the Dolanan Mabarong-barongan

performing arts then the artwork is essentially representing two ideologies (acculturative):

the ideology derived from traditional values and ideology derived from modern values.

(3) Creativity of the Artist

Julius Chandra (1994: 17) in his book Creativity revealed that creativity is the mental

ability of different types of typical human skills that can give birth to a unique, different,

original, completely new, beautiful, efficient, effective and appropriate disclosure. Referring

to the above opinion creativity in this study means the artists with its creativity is able to

create the representation of Dolanan Mabarong-barongan art performance that is different

from the others, new, original, and contains the value of beauty.

The birth of the creativity of the artists is actually determined by the ideology owned by

the artist itself. From this ideology then it is known the destination and orientation of the

artists in creating works of art. Ideology which then affects the creativity of the artists as

mentioned above, basically is also implemented in the process of creating the Dolanan

Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency in the Bali Arts Festival XXXII in

2010.

(4) The Community

The community has a huge role in creating a change in the art performance of

Dolanan Mabarongan-barongan Badung Regency. This is proven through their participation

in realizing the dolanan. As an agent of "social collective" the community has the task to

assist "individual agents", which is the artist itself in creating the art works that are created.

Without the active participation of community then it’s likely the existence of Dolanan

Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency will not be realized as expected.

This reality can not be separated from the collective nature contained in the creation of

Dolanan Mabarong-barongan performing arts. The creators of this new art work are three

artists, but when seen from the creativity process up to the performance, the role of other

parties such as supporting artists, culture experts, cultural critics, audiences, and others is

enormous. All of these elements are referred to as agents of "social collective", whose job it

is to help the artists or so-called "individual agent" in performing the works they create.

(5) Arts Education Institution

Arts education institutions, both in the scope of vocational education and higher

education such as Indonesian Arts Institute, essentially is a "space" of learning. According to

Massey (in Barker, 2005: 358), the meaning of space is not something "empty" but culturally

produced by social relations.

Supanggah (2000: 12) explains that the art institution in Indonesia has dimensions: on

one hand as an institution of higher education that teaches the science and art practices, but

on the other hand is also a preservation and innovation institute (laboratory in creating new

works) and a research institution that studies arts intrinsically and extrinsically. Therefore, as

the multifunctional education "space", the involvement of arts education institutions in

creating the progress and development of the arts in Indonesia, can not be doubted.

This is proven by the increasing number of arts graduates who are able to develop

their ability (skill) and knowledge in the community. This reality proves that it is no

exaggeration that the existence that Dolanan Mabarong-barongan performing arts of Badung

Regency can not be separated from the art institution's involvement in creating an art

learning "space" for the community. Art educational institution mentioned here are non -

formal institutions and formal institutions that gave birth to "academic arts community" and

"non-academic arts community" or often known as natural artist.

(6) Globalization

According to Muhammad Jazuli (2012), globalization is translated as the picture of the

world becomes more uniform and standardized through technology, commercialization, or

Western-influenced culture synchronization. As a result of the globalization process, all

aspects of culture, such as belief systems, livelihood systems, social organization systems,

technological equipment systems, knowledge systems, art system, and language system

undergoes a transformation such as changes in shape, appearance, and the characteristics

of the culture itself.

In line with the above explanation, essentially the socio-cultural environment in Badung

Regency which at first is traditional has now transformed becoming modern, obviously

influencing the produced art work. This is reasonable if the traditional Dolanan Mabarongan-

barongan of Badung Regency eventually evolved to follow the progress of time or as a result

of the influence of globalization.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Based from the research results, a conclusion can be drawn that the creation of the

Dolanan Mabarong-barongan Performing Arts of Badung Regency at the Bali Arts Festival

XXXII in 2010 was caused by several factors, which are the Bali Arts Festival, the ideology

of the artist, creativity of the artists, community, arts education institutions, government

policies, and globalization. Furthermore, it is suggested that all competent authorities should

take concrete steps in an effort to explore, develop, and expand dolanan as an asset and

identity of the nation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A message of appreciation is conveyed to Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Kutha Ratna,

S.U.(promotor), Prof. Dr. I Gde Semadi Astra and Prof. Dr. Nanik Sri Prihatini, S.Kar., M.Si.

(co-promotor), Prof. Dr. dr. Ketut Suastika, Sp.PD-KEMD (Rector of Udayana University),

Prof. Dr. dr. A.A. Raka Sudewi, Sp.S(K) (Director of Post Graduate Program, Udayana

University), Prof. Dr. Made Budiarsa, MA (Assistant Director 1 of Post Graduate Program,

Udayana University), Prof. Made Sudiana Mahendra, Ph.D. (Assistant Director 2 of Post

Graduate Program, Udayana University) Prof. Dr. I Wayan Cika, M.S. (Dean of Faculty of

Letters, Udayana University), Prof. Dr. A. A. Bagus Wirawan, S.U. and Dr. Putu Sukardja,

M.Si. (Head and Secretary of Culture Studies Study Program, Udayana University), Prof. Dr.

I Nyoman Suarka, M.Hum, and other professors at Doctorate Program Culture Studies Study

Program, Prof. Dr. I Wayan Rai S., MA. (previous Rector of ISI Denpasar), Dr. I Gede Arya

Sugiartha, SSKar., M.Hum. (Rector of ISI Denpasar), and other parties that cannot be

named individually.

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