The psychological aspects within the Yogyakartan Bedhaya: An exploratory study on royal court dancers

Abstract

As a classical art form reserved only for the Yogyakartan royalty from the 18th to the 20th century, the Bedhaya does not simply serve as entertainment for its audiences. It is the epitome of Javanese meditation. This study aims to explore the experiences of court dancers regarding the Bedhaya to ultimately identify what psychological aspects are involved in the formation of their experiences. We used Moustakas’ qualitative phenomenology as the basis of this whole research, in combination with movement elicitation procedures to condition the participants prior to the data collection process. Consequently, we interviewed four Bedhaya dancers from various generations who were trained within the royal court of Yogyakarta. We analyzed the results using Moustakas’ modification of the Stevick–Colaizzi–Keen method. The results yielded five themes, which are the essence of the experiences of Bedhaya dancers and were then elaborated further using psychological concepts that may serve as a starting point for further psychological research on the subject.