precision, control, speed, and focus, and for the aesthetic, balance, effort-
lessness, light-footedness, and fluidity.
The prominence of aesthetic factors in silat and its close association
with genres of Southeast Asian dance-drama have caused pentjak silat to
be mistakenly categorized as dance by outsiders. Donn Draeger offers the
following reasons for the confusion. Pentjak (regulated movements) silat
(defense) consists of two separate components, each of which can be prac-
ticed separately. The agility and graceful movements inherent in the system
manifest artful qualities (cf. Pauka); the practice of silat may be accompa-
nied by music, and Indonesian dance forms (e.g., randai) have utilized silat
movement patterns (Draeger 1972, 36). Rather than positing a one-way
street, he suggests that there may have been cross-influence, in that dance
movements may have been appropriated for use as silat. Pauka writes with
certainty, in the case of randai among the Menangkabu at least, that the
dramatic form evolved out of silek via the teaching method for basic moves
that places students in a circle observing the movements of a teacher.
In traditional styles of silat, the concept of supernormal power coex-
ists with the physical techniques. Although the primary contemporary reli-528 Silat
Silat experts must be
able to use the
ground to their
advantage. (Courtesy
of Joe Svinth)