Along with the srimpi, the bedhaya epitomized the elegant (Javanese: ꦲꦭꦸꦱ꧀, romanized: alus) character of the royal court and became an important symbol of the ruler's power.

The Solonese dance continues to be performed once per year on the second day of the Javanese month of Ruwah (May), to commemorate the ascension of the current Susuhunan (prince) of Surakarta.

Unfortunately, there is almost no historical evidence to back up the claims made about the advances in the arts in Sultan Agung's courts, and the existence of the dance was not clearly documented until the late 18th century.

[4] There are many myths which explain the origin of the dance, which generally have either an account of a meeting with an Indic deity (Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, or Lord Buddha), or the meeting of Kangjeng Ratu Kidul, the Goddess of the South Sea, with a founder of the Mataram dynasty, either Sultan Ageng or his grandfather, Senapati.

[5] Since the decline in the power of the royal courts, other, more accessible forms of bedhaya have become popular, not as religious ritual, but as artistic performance.

[6] The dance is held in a pendhapa, a pillared audience hall with a peaked roof, with the Susuhunan on a throne in the middle of the room.

The first position is in the shape of a human being, with the first five dancers in a line down the middle, and those representing the right and left sides in front and behind (from the perspective of the Susuhunan), respectively.

In the Yogyakarta kraton, where the dance is no longer performed as ritual, the complete gamelan was used as accompaniment, sometimes even featuring cornets.

[11] Much of the text is erotic love poetry, describing the attraction of Kangjeng Ratu Kidul to Sultan Agung.

The dancers must fast and undergo ritual purification, they must be in bridal dress and cover the upper part of their bodies in turmeric (borèh).

[13] The dance can be interpreted in a number of ways, including as an abstract sequence of positions, and a reenactment of the love between the goddess and a royal ancestor.

[16] Sumarsam considered the meaning of the use of pistols an aristocratic attempt to adopt a foreign element to show enhance royal power, or the secularization and informalization of the court ritual when in the presence of European guests.