Dancing Traditional Dances

The Indonesia archipelago is blessed with the wealth of natural and cultural resources. However nowdays there is no appreciation from the younger generations about their own cultures, because they are more fascinated by foreign cultures. They consider foreign cultures are more modern. A culture is usually closely related to the society. One form of the cultural activities is traditional dances. Traditional dances have been shaped in society to represent moral value. Every traditional dance in Indonesia creates its own uniqueness of every place in Indonesia. We, personally believe there are at least three good sides of dancing traditional dances for teenagers. They are as an effort to preserve the culture, to maintain healthy body, and to produce money.

The first good side of dancing traditional dances is an effort to preserve the culture. Many cultures in Indonesia, from Sabang to Merauke, have their own traditional dances. The traditional dances reflect the Indonesian personality. It's very important to preserve our culture. Because if nobody does it, the cultures, especially traditional dances will be vanished or be taken away by another country. And therefore Indonesians will lose their personality. Actually, it's easy to preserve traditional dances. All it takes is the willingness to learn then dance them.

There are many ways to preserve traditional dances. For example by making cooperation between countries to introduce the culture of traditional dances in Indonesia. It's not only to introduce the culture, but also to make Indonesia look good in the eyes of the world. That means Indonesia does not only have terrorists and corruptors, but also has many cultures, especially traditional dances. Indonesians should to be proud of and realize that the dances are highly respected and appreciated by foreigners.

Usually, traditional dances are used for traditional ceremonies or other rituals and also for social purposes, such as the opening of buildings, wedding receptions, and others. With this way, traditional dances will be more developed and never be vanished or be taken away by another country. Only a few would to dance traditional dances. Whereas, the foreigners are willing and enthusiastic to do it. Traditional dances was created and developed in particular area. Therefore, it's existence depends on the environment itself. So, we, as an Indonesian, should preserve our cultures, especially traditional dances to preserve our personality as an Indonesian and to develop the cultures, especially traditional dances to be better.

The second good side of dancing traditional dances is for health. Besides as an effort to preserve the cultures, we can also get another benefit that is a healthy body. Dancing traditional dances is the same as doing an exercise, because it can produce sweat and will help the blood circulation. Dancing traditional dances is good exercise for breathing, because it makes us breathe faster and therefore inhale more oxygen which makes us healthier.

There are many movements that can make the posture of the body better that before and our body will be more beautiful than before. The example of movements to maintain our body posture are agem movement which is a basic movement in Bali dances, its to shape the body, kewer movement is to process flexibility and agility of the hand, mendak movement is lower body movement that allows you to straighten up the body, to strengthen the legs, and for balance within, and engke gigit movement is cross walk movement that works to cultivate flexibility and agility of the feet. These movements are also to train the sensitivity of a sense of balance between movement, music, and expression. We believe, if we dancing traditional dances regularly, we will have a healthier body.

And the last good side of dancing traditional dances is that it can produce money. Why? Because of we have an ability to dance traditional dances, we can use it by teaching traditional dances to others. Dancing traditional dances is also as the way to socialize, communicate, and to express ourselves in many kinds of situations and conditions, because dancing traditional dances is the same as socialization activities.

Dancing traditional dances can be as a profession. It can be our full time job, for example we can be a teacher at a dance school or we can build the studio of traditional dances. We can teach as private teachers or we can also build the studio of traditional dances and teach after we worked or after school. So, dancing traditional dances can add our income by making it as our profession, as full time job or as part time job.

In short, dancing traditional dances is to preserve the cultures, to maintain our healthy body, an as well as to earn money. Traditional dances reflect the Indonesians personality. It's also the way to socialize, to communicate, and to express ourselves in many situations and conditions. So, why do not we start to dance traditional dances from now? We can get many benefits from them.