Dance and drama are important parts of Balinese culture as
they are considered as expresions of devotion to the Gods
and means of teaching to younger generation with old value.
Dances in Bali are both secular and religious and devided
into three types : namely wali, bebali and bali-balihan. Wali
dances are the most sacred and performed in inner sanctum
of the temple, ceremonial in nature, bebali dance take place
in the middle courtyard. Balih-balihan dances are secular
and usually performed in outer courtyard. We have outline
a few of dances which usually perform for tourist.
Shortly
the dance represents the eternal fight between goodness and
badness. Barong is the magical protector of Balinese village.
As ”Lord of the forest” with fantastic fanged
mask and long mane, he is the opponent of Rangda, the female
witch, who rules over the spirit of darkness, in never ending
fight good and evil. Ultimately, the two characters engage
in battle, at which point the Barong's keris-bearing followers
rush in to attack Rangda. The witch, however, uses her magical
power to turn the keris knives in upon their owners, who fall
into a trance and start trying to stab themselves. The Barong
uses magical to protect his followers from the knives. There
is always a priest on hand to help the keris dance out of
their trance with holywater. This dance is very powerful performance
and is not taken lightly by those involved.
The
legong dance is perhaps the most graceful of Balinese dance.
It is performed only by young girl 8 - 12 years olds (after
reaching puberty, the girls usually stop performing this dance).
Months of training are needed to master the perfect mix of
posture, movement and mimicry. Three dancers in glittering
costumes usually perform the dance, one condong lady in waiting
and two princesses whose roles change according to the narative.
The ancient legong used to have a storyteller's accompaniment,
but these days they are only dance performance.
Cak or Kecak, is one of Bali’s most
well-known performing art forms seen by tourist and has become
a memorable past of any visitor’s stay to the island.
Although Kecak is relatively new dramatic form, it has become
one of Bali’s performing arts for tourist. Kecak some
time call “Monkey Dance” by foreigner has become
a must see entertainment for both foreign and domestic visitors
in Bali. Charmed by the artistic beauty of Kecak, and impressed
by its dramatic intensity, many have featured this art form
in countless post card, book, film, painting and other publication
on Bali. Kecak is secular art form that embodies the spirit
and aesthetic elements of the ancient and modern traditions
of Bali.
Kecak
integrates both dance and drama, but ultimately the artistic
beauty of Kecak lies in its intricate vocal chanting. The
complex and multi layer sounds of “Cak Cak Cak”
chanted by the chorus into various rhythmic patterns are at
once the essence and soul of Kecak. The secular kecak emerged
during the Dutch occupation in Bali. There are two different
versions of the creativity of Kecak.The first states the secular
Kecak was originally created in Bedahulu, Gianyar through
the joint effort of the German born artist Walter Spiesand
the people of Bedulu. The second version state that secular
Kecak was inspired by emotion and dramatic intensity the ritual
Kecak chorus he saw in local performance of Shanghyang Dedari.
In 1932, Spies was consultant for a German film company producing
a movie in Bali called “The Island of Demons”.
The story is Ramayana from the Indian epic. Now a day, Kecak
dance perform throughout the island. More
detail klick here
The Joged Bumbung is one of the few exclusively
secular dances of Bali, in which the brightly dressed dancer
invite men from the crowd to dance with her in a pretence
of seduction. The music is made of bamboo instrument. This
dance is very popular with tourist.
The dance begin with a long opening sequence by the female
dancer. Then, long shawl in her hand, she selects a man from
the audience by either pointing with her fan or touching his
waist. The selected man comes on stage to hoots from audienceand
is expected to be as adept at teasing as the woman dancer.
He may try to pinch her, dance hip to hip with her or even
behave like an angry lover and try to hit her.
