THE CREATION OF SURAKARTA AND YOGYAKARTA STYLES

The appearance of separate Surakarta and Yogyakarta styles of Javanese dancing was the result of the splicting of the Mataram, kingdom into two in 1755, when Mataram. was divided into the Surakarta and the Yogyakarta kingdoms.

The dances developing in West Java centred in the kingdoms of Banten and Cirebon also produced an individual style, differing from the Java or Central Java style, and better known as the Sunda style. Nowadays if Indonesian people refer to Javanese dancing, they mean Central Java style, which can be further differentiated into the Surakarta and Yogyakarta styles, whereas they use the term Sunda style to refer to West Javanese dances.

Again it should be emphasized, although the Dutch broke up Surakarta into the kingdom of Surakarta and the smaller Mangkunegaran and the English split Yogyakarta into the kingdoms of Yogyakarta and the smaller Pakualam, the breaking up of Mataram. into four parts brought forth only two styles of Javanese dancing, namely, the Surakarta style and the Yogyakarta style.
These two styles have undergone rapid progress since the second .half of the 18th century, which was marked by the creation of three