RP’s Malay Cultural Group wows the crowd at HeritageFest

The ‘groom’ flanked by bunga mangga, accompanied by the kompang players.

The rhythmic beat of the kompang signaled the start of RP’s Malay Cultural Group’s performance at the HeritageFest held at Parco Bugis Junction on Sunday, 18th July. The groom was flanked by his best-man and two bunga mangga bearers followed by 8 kompang players. As they made their way to the stage where the waiting bride was seated, curious on-lookers also followed suit to join the audience who had already gathered under the performance tent.

The enthusiastic audience was treated to a showcase of Malay culture carefully choreographed as a traditional Malay Wedding ceremony. The performance comprised 2 traditional Malay dances (the Zapin and Inang), Silat (the Malay art of self-defense and a duet of a popular Malay wedding song. All the performers looked resplendent in their traditional costumes and it literally brightened up the entire stage with their colourful and glittering costumes.

The performance did experience a slight hiccup when the music accompanying the duet wouldn’t play, but the songbirds bravely sang a capella, so well that you couldn’t tell there wasn’t music playing in the background.

The students were visibly enjoying themselves as they danced and sang with big smiles on their faces. They even pulled up some members of the audience to join them in the last dance, which was a lively joget. This was a fitting close to a delightful performance. The organisers were surprised but pleased at the scale and effort put in by the students. Well done MCG! You’ve done RP proud!

	The happy ‘couple’.
	The dancers doing the joget
	The fearless Silat exponents.
	The songbirds rendering a love song.
	Dancing the joget with members of the audience.