12.2 A Pho dance performance at a government function : AV

AV12.2: Audiovisual Example 2 in Chapter 12 of book: Margaret Kartomi, ‘Musical Journeys in Sumatra’, Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. For female participants. A Phô dance performance at a government function in Meulaboh, Aceh, March 2007. A group of singer-dancers (rakan) enter the stage and form two parallel rows. After performing the saleum bersaf (opening greeting bow), they dance a medley of eleven song-dances. A syahé (lead vocalist) stands apart with her apét (assistant) and sings the standard verses to standard melodies. Content of verses include texts from a tragic legend about Madion and Malelang, a male and female teenage pair, who are victims of slander and sentenced to death. The dancers sing group responses to the solo singing. Copyright 2007. Margaret J. Kartomi. Camera by Iwan Dzulvan Amir