Ketoprak

Ketoprak (Javanese: Kethoprak) is a theatrical genre of Java featuring actors who may also sing to the accompaniment of the gamelan. It draws its stories from Javanese history and romances and in this differs from wayang wong, which shares with wayang kulit a repertoire drawn from the Hindu epics Mahabarata and Ramayana, as well as from ludruk which uses contemporary settings and the three-walled srimulat, which specializes in vampire stories. According to Clifford Geertz ^[1] it was invented as recently as 1923.
Ketoprak troupes might owned or rented a performance building, such as Ketoprak Srimulat that used to be performed in a theatre both in Jakarta and Surabaya back in the 80's, or might travelling trough villages. The travelling ketoprak troupe is called Kethoprak Tobong, also known as Ketoprak Tonil. It might be considered as common people theatrical tradition in Java. The show were performed in certain period in an empty plain near a village and moved from one place to another, in fashion similar to western travelling circus. In this traveling troupe, the performers and staffs also brought show properties; such as costumes, stage decorations, chairs, gamelan, sound system, diesel electric generator, all were contained in a portable building that also used as set or stage called "tobong". During their journey, the troupe members also living in this tobong.^[2]
Recently ketoprak has been adopted into television show, the "Ketoprak Humor" show was aired in Indonesian national television. It is a comedy and action performance, often took place in modern settings or in historical ancient Javanese kingdoms. The ketoprak that took the story of ancient Java is quite similar with Wayang wong performance, however ketoprak performance is more free for improvisations, jokes and adoption of popular languages, while Wayang wong are traditionally highly stylized with precise and structurized dance drama discipline.

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Film

The mass media has helped jaipongan become popular especially in the cinema but not as much as cassettes. There are many filmed performances online from students/audiences and dance documentaries from Java/Indonesia. Jaipongan songs have been taken and set to “Mr. Bean,” a character from western film, as well as other modern pop cultural references in YouTube videos.
Music videos/performances of Tonggeret by Idijah Hadijah as well as other famous artists can be seen on YouTube and also can be heard and referenced in use by Indian or Hindu film songs. There is a full-length film, called Mistri Ronggeng Jaipong, from Indonesia, made in 1982, by Mardali Syareif. A snippet can be seen here: Ronggeng Jaipong
There is also a Jean Hellwig film on popular dancing in West Java, 1989, with accompanying book and jaipongan chapter called Sundanese Pop Culture Alive.^[2] A snippet can be seen in the reference section.

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Jaipong today

In 2011, the international popularity of jaipongan has decreased, but in Asia, it’s still extremely popular. It’s most popular in the areas of Sunda, where it was created, as well as the surrounding villages and cities.
Although it’s most popular in Asia, there are jaipongan dance troupes and musical ensembles in Europe in addition to the United States (like Harsanari of San-Francisco) and throughout other parts of the world.
In 2011, jaipongan is noted as a modern classical concert genre of music, which is often sampled in other Asian music, and has multiple subgenres. There is still is a large market for jaipongan CDs and mp3s.

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