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Caption: KUDA LUMPING
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Caption: Indonesia is rich in performing arts culture heritage, amongst this there are a lot of dances. Kuda Lumping is one of them. There is not much information on Internet about its origins, but it is clearly linked to the pre-colonial days
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Caption: While maybe not esteemed as other dances from Java and Bali, it is for sure popular, especially amongst the young generation. Typically in a village carnival setting, several groups of dancers perform rounds of this dancing
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Caption: Charging The dance sequence starts with several rounds of events that look like challenges and charging. Opposing each other and chasing in circles, making particular foot motions. It is performed on Gamelan music, sung in Javanese
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Caption: CHARGING & CHASING
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Caption: Whips There are whips slapped and there are masters controlling the young horse riders (kuda means horse)
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Caption: They dance and move over the stage vigorously getting worked up for the finale of the dance, which is rather spectacular
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Caption: The beginning of the dance, a session takes a good part of an hour and there are several sessions per day, from lunchtime to around 10 in the evening. Large crowds go there with family and children to meet up and enjoy, from the village and neighboring villages
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Caption: Driven together, they prepare for the last stage, dominated by their masters
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Caption: Masters controlling the horse riders
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Caption: Preparing them for the hallucinating finale of the dance, where the horse riders inhale the herbal smoke and go crazy
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Caption: The dancers end in trance, after exposure to the smoke and they are carried off the stage after intense movements like rolling under whips from their masters
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Caption: The richness of culture and the way it is embedded in current and future generations and in daily life is truly unique to Indonesia, a testimony to a rich and colorful past and inspiring for the future