Sumazau

Movements

The sumazau begins with the first movement where dancers shift their weight from foot to foot while keeping their knees bent and arms swinging on their sides in time to the music.

When a male dancer cues the other dancers, they switch to another position where the arms are outstretched and their feet are on tiptoes. Men move their arms in a gentle rolling motion while women motion their arms with their elbows bent downwards. This move imitates the departure of a bird, specifically an eagle, which would have been visible from paddy fields.

Music

The term sumazau can also refer to the music associated with the dance, known in Malay as rentak sumazau. Otherwise, it is also called magagung (to hit a gong), the nominalized form pagagungan or magagung sumazau.

Instruments

The dance is usually accompanied by a sompogogungan, a set of six to seven hanging gongs, and a gandang. The sumazau ensemble may include a kulintangan.

Sompogogungan

In Guunsing village, the gongs are named as such, left to right from the players' viewpoint:

• Sanang (canang in Malay)
  1. Sasalakan
  2. Naanangong
  3. Hahambatan
• Other
  1. Hotungong
  2. Tontoongan
  3. Tatavag

Each gong name denotes the musical part that it plays.

The gongs are classified into two types. Sanang gongs are small with thick brass walls, a single knob on a flat surface and a rim bent downwards. On the other hand, the remaining three gongs (called tawag among interior Sabah Kadazandusuns) are heavy, made of brass or bronze, have deep rims, and the front surface is raised near the center with larger knobs.

Gandang

The gandang is a drum carved from a single piece of wood, with two heads made from either cowhide or goat skin. The heads are bound with cane hoops. Into the hoops, wooden tuning pegs are inserted.

Kulintangan

Kulintangan in the context of sumazau music may refer to a gong-chime of eight or nine small knobbed gongs or a small metallophone of nine keys (named as such since its tuning and music follows that of the former). One is more likely to find the metallophone in a sumazau ensemble.

Instrument positions

From the instrument players' viewpoint, the gandang is placed left of the sompogogungan while the kulintangan is placed in front of the sompogogungan, sometimes with the player's back facing the audience.

Playing the instruments

Sumazau music consists of a rhythmic pattern of interlocking parts. This starts with the gandang, followed by the sompogogungan, beginning with the sasalakan down to the tatavag. The kulintangan provides melodic ornamentation over the texture of the drum and gongs.

The sompogogungan is struck with sticks covered with beeswax or rubber while the kulintangan is hit with two wooden beaters. The gandang is placed in an approximately vertical position and hit on one head with a stick covered in beeswax or a hard piece of coconut frond stem.

No separate pieces exist for the music. Instead, the same rhythmic pattern is repeated continuously until the dance sequence ends.

Functions

The sumazau plays both ceremonial and celebratory roles. The sumazau is performed at certain stages in traditional ritual such as the magang after headhunting and for spirits inhabiting a bangkavan (collection of skulls), and the moginum ceremony. It is also performed during Kaamatan in honour of the traditional rice spirit, besides wedding celebrations, the 40th night of a deceased person's passing and other major social gatherings.

Related dances

Among the Kadazandusun of Tambunan District, there are dances similar to the sumazau called the magarang, occasionally called the mongigol, and mangalai. Sumazau is sometimes also used to refer to the sazau dance of the Kadazandusun of Papar.

In the 21st century

As more Kadazandusuns are converting to Islam, the baju sumazau has been modified by female Muslim dancers in accordance with Islamic standards of modesty.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a video depicting a medical assistant officer, Norbert Andilah dancing the sumazau in a PPE suit in an effort to combat boredom and depression among quarantined patients via SOP-compliant exercise sessions went viral.

Controversies

In 2012, a blog called Suara Pakatan Rakyat wrote an article titled Tarian Sumazau Untuk Golongan Rendah Akhlak (Sumazau is for the Morally Weak), claiming that the dance is a cult. This issue prompted backlash from the Sabahan (particularly the Kadazandusun and Murut aka KDM) community. In response, the then-vice president of the Kadazandusun Cultural Association and Information Chief of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah, Rayner Francis Udong clarified that "Sumazau is a KadazanDusun traditional dance in the state and has nothing to do with worship", assuming the article had conflated the sumazau with a ritual ceremony called the magavau. As of September 15th 2012, the blog has retracted the article and apologized for its publication.