A theater group, founded by a Russian immigrant, who was born in Penang, Willy Klimanoff. He first worked at the Kornidi Opera Constantinople. At that time he renamed himself Willy A. Piedro. Because he was not satisfied in being just a performer, he started his own business in order to channel his vision and artistic talent. On June 21, 1926 the Dardanella theater group was formed and started its first show in Sidoarjo, East Java.
Dardanella was formed in the midst of Orion’s greatness or fully called Miss Riboet’s Orion, a professional theater troupe that was established beforehand. It is no wonder that part of the motivation for Dardanella’s formation was to rival the popularity, greatness, and success of Orion. Orion was popular and successful due to the beautiful stage star, Miss Riboet. To compete with Orion, Dardanella featured a rising star with the name Tan Tjeng Bok, who played hero roles who were especially good at the sword. In subsequent developments, stars such as Dewi Dja and Astaman joined Dardanella, followed by Anjar Asmara and Nyoo Cheong Seng who joined as playwrights. Both writers were bold enough to present rather "heavy" and "problematic" stories because they found that part of the audience of the theatrical troupe were among the educated class. However, Dardanella did not forget the motto used in their shows, which is "to give a satisfying performance to the public".
The language used by the Dardanella performers was Malay, likewise when they were staging a play written in a foreign language, the performers use the Malay language. For example, the play "Victor Ido" which is written in Dutch. The theatrical developments made by Dardanellaare not much different from noble comedic traditions. In its development for example they featured acts that depicted realistic characters. For example, the role of Nyai Dasima and Si Conat. Even leaving royal comedy traditions altogether, the play was performed completely without song. Not only in the traditions of the acts, in the traditions of the stage also had Dardanella brought about big changes.
Dardanella’s glory days lasted for about 10 years. In 1935, they travelled around Asia which also marked the split and dissolution of the group. The leader of the theatrical group, A. Piedro along with his wife, Dewi Dja, as well as thirty players continued their journey, while Anjar Asmara and his wife returned to Java, and subsequently formed another theater group called Bolero. Nyo Cheong Seng and Fifi Young also resigned from the Dardanella, and built a new theater troupe, called the Fifi Young’s Pagoda.
