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mid the flourishing of modern-art performances in the capital city, indigenous Betawi artists have stressed the importance of regeneration and innovation in preserving Betawi culture.

Sukirman Kisam, the leaders of Ratnasari art group, says that in trying to pass on Betawi dance and music, he, together with his wife Kartini Kisam, is maintaining and developing a Betawi dance and music course established in 1977 by his father Kisam Dji'€™un.

The course trains children and adults twice a week in dance and music at the Betawi traditional house at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in East Jakarta.

'€œAt the moment we have around 200 students, each of whom is required to pay a monthly fee of only Rp 15,000 [US$1.15],'€ he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a recent two-day cultural event at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta in Central Jakarta.

Sukirman said that the course participants learned, among other disciplines, Betawi Topeng (mask dances).

His Ratnasari group is known for its specialty of a series of mask dances that require the accompaniment of tunes played with six musical instruments: rebab (a two-string bowed instrument), kendang (twin drums made of buffalo skin), kenong and kenceng (small gongs), kecrek (metal string instrument) and a gong.

He explained that out of the six instruments, rebab was the hardest to preserve.

'€œNot many people can play rebab because only a few can teach it,'€ he said. '€œEdi, our 68-year-old rebab player, is one of the only three players in Jakarta and Bekasi.'€

Sukirman said that the Ratnasari group had also used a lot of innovation in its dance performances. The group, for instance, added some up-to-date comedy to its lipet gandes, a Betawi dance combined with comedy.

When the lipet gandes dance was performed on the first night of the event, the audience laughed out loud at the group'€™s witty jokes about problems related to globalization in Jakarta.

Visitor Maria Bagas, 30, said she was entertained by the dance. '€œIt is traditional and amusing,'€ she said.

Ahmad Supandi, the founder of the Arrominia choir, said that innovation could also be used as a means to preserve Betawi culture.

He said that as part of its innovation, his group planned to make an album of samrah (Islamic chorus music) and gambus (Arabian music) in English.

According to Ahmad, the songs, adopted from Malay culture first introduced by Doel Moeloek from Riau in 1900s, have received much appreciation from listeners abroad.

'€œWe have been invited to sing in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand for various occasions, such as a charity event for the building of a mosque in the Netherlands and a wedding celebration in the UAE,'€ he told the Post.

The group has also assisted with regeneration through word of mouth.

'€œI established the choir in 1993 as a means to unite my friends who share the same interest in samrah and gambus. The members were previously only residents in Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, but now they are from various places in Jakarta,'€ Ahmad said.

A member of the audience, Mirna Noviyanti, 46, said the samrah songs were soothing and took her back in time to when she and her husband used to listen to them often. (rbk)