The Legend and Story of Bali Dances and Drama

Dance is the main art from Balinese culture as well as the important part of nearly every ritual in Bali. It is an integral part of Balinese religion and culture. Dance is performed at the main temple festivals and ceremonies of the cycle of life and death.

In Hinduism, dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. The creative and reproductive balance is often personified as Shiva's wife, Durga, sometimes called Uma, Parvati, or Kali. This has significance in Balinese Hinduism, since the common figure of Rangda is similar in many ways to Durga. In Bali there are various categories of dance (barong, legong, kecak) including epic performances such as the omnipresent Mahabharata and Ramayana. Bali dancers learn the craft as children from their mothers as young as age 4 (see a nine years old dancer on the right). In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble specific to Java, Bali and Malaya. Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet are coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds. The number of codified hand positions and gestures, the mudras, is higher in India than in Java or Bali. It has been speculated that they have been forgotten as the dance was transmitted from India to Java[8]. Hand positions and gestures are nonetheless as important in Javanese and Balinese dance as in India. Whether in India, Indonesia or Cambodia, hands have a typically ornamental role and emphasize the dance's delicate intricacy.

Baris Dance
The word Baris means line, in the sense of a line of soldiers, and refers to the warriors who fought for the kings of Bali. Baris dance is a solo warrior dance which originally was a religious ritual dance, the dedication of warriors and their weapons during a temple feast.

 

Ramayana Dance
A new version of Ramayana dance was introduced to Bali in mid 1970s. Accompanied by the gamelan gong orchestra, Ramayana dance is a unique combination of traditional dance technique and modern comedy

 

Barong Dance
Barong Dance: Barong is probably the most well known dance. It is also another story telling dance, narrating the fight between good and evil. This dance is the classic example of Balinese way of acting out mythology, resulting in myth and history being blended into one reality.

Kecak Dance
Kecak dance is perhaps the most stunning of all the Balinese dances. The story line of the dance is taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana . that tells the story of Prince Rama and his rescue of Princess Sinta, who has been kidnapped by the evil King Rahwana. Prince Rama was able to rescue Princess Sinta with the help of the white monkey armies.

The word Kecak is derived from the "chak-chak" sounds, the chanting 'monkey' chorus. Unlike other dances, there is no gamelan orchestra accompanying it. Instead, a group of over 150 bare-chested men make an amazing synchronized chak-chak sound while swaying their bodies and waving their hands, acting as the various monkey armies that are featured in the story.

Legong Dance
In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. The most popular Legong dance is Legong Kraton (Legong of the Palace). Formerly, the dance was patronized by local kings and held in a residence of the royal family. Dancers were recruited from the aptest and prettiest children. Today, the Legong dancers are still very young.

The dance is performed by three dancers: a female attendant of the palace and two identically dressed legongs who act the roles of royal persons. The story derives from the history of East Java in the 12th and 13th centuries. A king finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in the forest. He takes her home and locks her in a house of stone. Rangkesari's brother, the Prince of Daha, threatens war unless she is set free.

Rangkesari begs her captor to avoid war by giving her liberty, but the king prefers to fight. On his way to battle, he encounters a bird of ill omen that predicts his death. In the fight that ensues he is killed. The dance dramatizes the farewells of the King as he departs for the battlefield and his ominous encounter with the bird.

The dancers flow from one identity into the next without disrupting the harmony of the dance. They may act as the double image of one character and their movements marked by tight synchronization. Then they may split, each enacting a separate role, and come together again. In a love scene in which they rub noses, the King takes leave of Rangkesari. She repels his advances by beating him with her fan, and he departs in anger, soon to perish on the battlefield.

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