Yospan Dance, Traditional Dance From Papua

Yospan dance is one of the traditional dances originating from Papua. This dance belongs to the kind of social dance or dance friendship between young men in Papua society. Yosim Pancar or commonly abbreviated Yospan is a merger of 2 (two) folk dances in Papua, namely Yosim and Pancar.

History of the emergence of the dance Yospan, we can run from the origin of both dances before experiencing merger to become Yospan. Yosim is an old dance from Sarmi, a district on the northern coast of Papua, close to the Mamberamo River. Yet another source says that this Yosim originated from the bay area of Saireri (Serui, Waropen). Meanwhile, Pancar is a dance that developed in Biak Numfor and also in Manokwari early 1960s during the Dutch colonial era in Papua. The beginning of the history of his birth is by imitating acrobatic movements in the air, with naming referring to jets. So the dance that mimicked the aerial acrobatic movement was originally called Gas Pancar, and shortened to become Pancar.

Since its inception in the early 1960s, Pancar has enriched its movement from various other sources, including enriching the movement of the natural movement. Because of this popularity, dance Yospan often exhibited in every event such as welcoming activities, events custom, and also the festival of art and culture. Yospan is also often displayed in Abroad to meet invitations or follow the Festival that is there. Even one of these Biak Papuans dances, always held every August. They will dance along the way of Imam Bonjol by accompanying a typical Papuan music.

The uniqueness of the Yospan dance is in addition to its musical instruments, clothing, accessories, clothing, and color, clothing in each of the dance clubs or art galleries of Yospan vary, but still with typical accessories from Papua are almost the same. The musical instruments used in accompanying Yospan dances are like Guitar, Ukulele, Tifa and Acoustic Bass. The rhythms and songs in the Yospan Dance in particular greatly awaken the power of this dance. Another highly visible uniqueness is the freedom of movement in Yosim dance and the dynamic mixing of acrobatic movements.

So the dance of Yosim Pancar consists of two teams, the Musicians Team and also the Dancer. Yospan dancers are usually more than one person or group, with a movement full of exciting, vibrant, and dynamic. In this dance, there are several different forms of dance moves such as Gale-gale dance, Seka dance, Sajojo Dance, Pacul Tiga dance, Balada dance and Cendrawasih dance.

Because Yospan dance is a social dance and there is no limit on the number of dancers in this dance, anyone can follow and enter the circle and can directly move to follow other dancers. It does not matter whether they are male or female, comment or amber, old or young. With the position of the dancers generally, form a circle and walk around while dancing, and accompanied by musicians. So no wonder through the dance Yospan, Papua community communication with the immigrants to be positive, as well as introducing the music and songs of contemporary created by Papuan artists.