ABSTRACT
This chapter reconsiders Sundanese dance and dance drumming as a single domain of activity that encompasses a variety of sonic and tactile dimensions. Social dances usually involve a professional female entertainer with ties to the rice goddess, who facilitates the participation of amateur male dancers. Dance scholar Nungky Kusumastuty and collaborators have put forward a hierarchy of levels of gestures involved in tari kursus performances, basic movement units, elements, linkages, transitions and ornaments. The continued use of the syllables in music and dance pedagogy is a living testament to their profound role in the development of ritual, social and performed Sundanese dances. Following Ellingson's speculation about Indian drum syllables, the author conjecture that modern Sundanese dance drumming proceeded from the recitation of syllables, coupled with the repetition of gestures, by medieval aristocrats. In Seeger's taxonomy, 'cybernetics' refers to how one or a few individuals control the flow of dance events.
