Visit The 2025 Bedhayan Festival, Fadli Zon Supports New Conservation And Creative Dance Bedhaya

Minister of Culture (Menbud) Fadli Zon opened the Bedhayan Festival at the Jakarta Arts Building, Saturday 9 August. (IST)

JAKARTA - Minister of Culture (Menbud) Fadli Zon emphasized that the preservation of traditional arts must not stop at maintaining its original form.

"There must be innovation, creation, adaptation. That is a form of cultural development," he said when opening the Bedayan Festival at the Jakarta Arts Building, Saturday, August 9.

The annual festival which will be held for the fifth time is the collaboration between Laskar Indonesia Pusaka, Jaya Suprana School of Performing Arts, Swargaloka, and the Ministry of Culture. This year, the festival carries the theme Panca Utsava Bedhayan which highlights the five main elements of the Bedhaya Dance: aesthetics of movement, meaning sacredness, rhythmal order, flavor balance, and soul complaints.

Fadli quoted cultural observer Jaya Suprana as saying that the Bedhaya Dance is a spiritual soul celebration full of meaning, ethics, and aesthetics. He mentioned his history is long and is now living with a touch of new creations. "The ministry will continue to support this festival to be sustainable and further advance classical dance," he said.

The Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, Arifatul Choiri Fauzi, appreciated this festival. He highlighted the lack of knowledge of the younger generation about national heroes. This is concerning. Therefore, we must introduce Indonesian culture again," he said.

The General Chairperson of the 2025 Bedhayan Festival, Aylawati Sarwono, said that the last five years festival has become a forum for artists, culturalists, academics, and the younger generation to explore the philosophical and spiritual values of Bedhaya.

This year, the festival presents 15 dance studios with classic Javanese works, appearances of Enggang Dance guests, as well as exhibitions of MSMEs and local craftsmen. There were also diplomatic representatives from Russia, Cambodia, India, Laos, and Pakistan.

This event is expected to strengthen the existence of the Bedhaya Dance in the midst of modern society, especially in the hearts of the younger generation, while keeping the masterpiece of the archipelago alive and relevant.