11.12.2007
The are several versions of the Barong Dance, as Bali has an abundance of myths and legends. There is Barong Ket, Barong Asu (Dog Barong), Barong Macan (Tiger Barong), Barong Bangkal (Pig Barong), Barong Gajah (Elephant Barong) and others.One of the well known stories on which the Barong Dance is based, is the Kunti Seraya. The plot is very intriguing, showing the effect of the Gods intervention upon the people through supernatural powers.It is told that Dewi Kunti, from the royal family of Hastinapura, was very ill. As a devotee of the Goddess Durga, she seeks help, however, the Goddess tells her that the price of health is her own son, Sahadewa. It seems that the Goddess fancied Sahadewa's young and luscious flesh for her dinner.Dewi Kunta recovers from her illness and it is time to pay the price. She regrets her decision to pay the price but a promise is a promise. One of the Goddess's followers put her into a trance and enters her body. She becomes a terrifying creature and unconsciously beats Sahadewa mercilessly. She then takes him to an unpenetratable jungle and ties him to a tree. Later Sahadewa is given immortality by God and she overcomes the wrath of the Goddess and she is able to release her son.
The Panyembrama is probably the most popular Balinese social dance. In keeping with its meaning in the Balinese Language, Panymebrama is frequently staged to welcome guests of honour who are making a visit to this islands of the Gods.Four or eight young girls bearing a bokor, a heavily engraved bowl made from silver or aluminium, laden with flowers, dance expressively to the accompaniment of vibrant gamelan music.During the dance, the flowers are scattered over the guest or audience as an expression of welcome. The Panymebrama has taken many of its movements from temple dances, such as the Rejang Dance, Pendet and Gabor, which are considered sacred and performed exclusively for God. There is an analogy between the secular Panymebrama and the religious temple dances, as all these dances are welcoming dances, the difference being in the place in which they are stage.The Tari Panymebrama comes under the Balinese classification of Legong (individual dances), because it has no connection with other dances, has no story and was specifically created for welcoming and entertainment purposes.The hospitality and friendliness conveyed through the smiles of the Panymebrama girls, charms the audience and so is very fitting as an opening for a show, etc.
The story of the Ramayana greatly inspires the Balinese. Many of their dances are based on this great story which is often depicted in a ballet.The Balinese version differs from the Indian Version. It is told that Rama, as the first son in a family, was the heir to the Ayodya kingdom but the king's second wife, through her treachery forced the king to crown her own son as the King of Ayodya and asked him to send Rama and his wife into exile.Because he respected his father, Rama went with his wife called Sita and his beloved younger brother, Laksmana into a forest called Dandaka. Usually the first act of the ballet depicts Rama and entourage in the heart of the Dandaka forest.Rahwana, the evil King of Alengka, enchanted by the beauty of Sita, wanted to have her as his concubine. He sent one of his knights, Marica, to temp Sita by transforming himself into a golden deer. Sita, captivated by her curiosity, asked her husband to catch the golden deer.The next act explains how Rama succeeds in hunting the golden deer but as his arrow struck the golden deer it transformed back into Marica. Meanwhile Sita heard a distant cry for help. Laksmana, who had been asked by his brother to look after his sister-in-law, tried to explain to her that the cry sounds very suspicious. But nevertheless, Sita was convinced that someone was in need of help. So she sent Laksmana to look for this person and to help whoever it is. In his desperate attempt, Laksmana asked Sita, no matter what would happen, to stay inside the guarding circle that he created.Rahwana, knowing that Sita was protected by the circle transforms himself into an old priest. He approaches Sita and asks her for a drink. Sita, without hesitation, extends her hands beyond the circle to hand him the water. Rahwana takes the advantage, snatches her hand and takes her to his palace in Alengka.On the way, Rahwana encounters a mighty eagle Jatayu. By every means possible, Jatayu tries to rescue Sita from the evil king but fails and is killed by Rahwana.Rama and Laksmana find the dying Jatayu who tells them the whole story of what had happened to Sita.In his attempt to release his wife, Rama seeks the help from Hanoman and his monkey soldiers. Hanoman finds Sita in the palace's garden. She had been asked by Rahwana to marry him but she would rather die. Hanoman convinces Sita that he is Rama's messenger and talks of a plan.Rahwana catches Hanoman and burns his tail but in so doing, set fire to the palace's' gardens. The pyrotechnics can be very impressive.In the last act, Rama and his troops are depicted attacking Rakhwana's palace. Finally Rama manages to kill Rahwana and therefore takes his wife back to his country.The abridged version ends here but if you see paintings in Kamasan style based on the Ramayana story, you would notice that in the last of serialised paintings, Sita had to prove she was still pure, and had not been tainted by Rahwana, by plunging herself into a fire. Because of her faith in her husband, God saved her from the fire and she lived happily ever after with Rama.The Indian version reveals a very different ending with Sita saved by Mother Earth, never returning to her husband.
LEAD: When the Dancers and Musicians of Bali first delighted Americans in 1952, both dancers and audiences seemed a great deal more innocent. The company by the same name that opened Tuesday night at the City Center is by no means the same troupe -nor are the times in which we live.
When the Dancers and Musicians of Bali first delighted Americans in 1952, both dancers and audiences seemed a great deal more innocent. The company by the same name that opened Tuesday night at the City Center is by no means the same troupe -nor are the times in which we live.
The Balinese village that gave birth to the program's secular and religious dances is now part of a global village. The excellent gamelan musicians who sit onstage with a glittering array of bronze xylophone-like instruments, gongs and flutes are more familiar than in the past. So much so that anyone seeking the inspiration behind the modular percussive music of American experimental composers like Steve Reich will have no trouble recognizing the source.
Nonetheless, the real thing is, so to speak, the real thing. There is no substitute for experiencing the gamelan ensemble's texture of melody and rhythm. Nor can the Balinese dancers be separated from the vital premise of their art: interaction with the gamelan orchestra.
The present company, however, includes none of the child performers or great masters whose purity once guaranteed spellbinding success. Instead, we see a group of professionals who occasionally radiate a tinge of spirituality, as in the Legong Keraton female duet, but who chiefly outline the form of a dance rather than fill it with feeling. For all their nonrealistic essence, Bali's dances are subtle expressions of mood and movement.
The current group, directed by Anuk Agung Gede Oka Kaleran, offers a no-nonsense survey, from pure-dance solos with hidden symbolic content to simulations of trance dances and excerpts from storytelling morality plays. The distinction between the masculine and feminine styles is always made clear. The women's characteristic stance is angular, one hip jutting out, one arm out with curved fingers splayed while the torso leans toward the other arm, which is bent. The men move in a turned-out plie, shifting their weight, darting quickly to the side. The eruption of small rhythmic steps contrasts with the outward lyricism.
The musicians are better than the dancers, who are straightforward and whose virtuosic range is not as wide as it could be, as seen in the sitting dance known as the Kebyar, or in the invocation, performed in a routine manner by six women.
The production, which was supervised by Pierre Lucas with lighting by Chenault Spence and which runs through Sunday, got off to a black-tie gala start: the Indonesian ambassador and consul general, as well as two former United States ambassadors to Indonesia, stood up for a bow.
The performers, said to come from the villiage of Peliatan, are seen in front of simulated temple decor, surrounded by foliage. The gamelan orchestra sits on both sides while the dancer, as they might at home, enter from the temple steps.
To see the musicians raise their mallets in unison as they strike the gamelan instruments is to see and hear choreography at the same time. It is a stupendous sight. And to watch them follow the dancer who appeared as the quivering, glowering warrior in the Baris is to understand the close relationship between musicians and dancers.
In the Legong Keraton, two women in gold and purple costumes first perform a dance sitting on chairs, each twirling a fan. As a male singer begins a storytelling passage about a prince who tries to abduct a princess, the women plunge into a combative dance with impressive ferocity, swatting at one another with branches or placing a flexed foot mercilessly on a foe's body.
The Kecak, or trance dance, in which the men sit in a circle and chant as one imitates a monkey, was rendered confusing by the appearance of several women in their midst. By contrast, there was clarity in in the masked dance known as a Jauk, also in the Raja Pala where a princess lost her veil-like wings to a prince. Universal would be the word for the folk play excerpt, the Barong, in which the lion-like creature of the same name, embodying goodness, prevailed over evil.
When the Dancers and Musicians of Bali first delighted Americans in 1952, both dancers and audiences seemed a great deal more innocent. The company by the same name that opened Tuesday night at the City Center is by no means the same troupe -nor are the times in which we live.
The Balinese village that gave birth to the program's secular and religious dances is now part of a global village. The excellent gamelan musicians who sit onstage with a glittering array of bronze xylophone-like instruments, gongs and flutes are more familiar than in the past. So much so that anyone seeking the inspiration behind the modular percussive music of American experimental composers like Steve Reich will have no trouble recognizing the source.
Nonetheless, the real thing is, so to speak, the real thing. There is no substitute for experiencing the gamelan ensemble's texture of melody and rhythm. Nor can the Balinese dancers be separated from the vital premise of their art: interaction with the gamelan orchestra.
The present company, however, includes none of the child performers or great masters whose purity once guaranteed spellbinding success. Instead, we see a group of professionals who occasionally radiate a tinge of spirituality, as in the Legong Keraton female duet, but who chiefly outline the form of a dance rather than fill it with feeling. For all their nonrealistic essence, Bali's dances are subtle expressions of mood and movement.
The current group, directed by Anuk Agung Gede Oka Kaleran, offers a no-nonsense survey, from pure-dance solos with hidden symbolic content to simulations of trance dances and excerpts from storytelling morality plays. The distinction between the masculine and feminine styles is always made clear. The women's characteristic stance is angular, one hip jutting out, one arm out with curved fingers splayed while the torso leans toward the other arm, which is bent. The men move in a turned-out plie, shifting their weight, darting quickly to the side. The eruption of small rhythmic steps contrasts with the outward lyricism.
The musicians are better than the dancers, who are straightforward and whose virtuosic range is not as wide as it could be, as seen in the sitting dance known as the Kebyar, or in the invocation, performed in a routine manner by six women.
The production, which was supervised by Pierre Lucas with lighting by Chenault Spence and which runs through Sunday, got off to a black-tie gala start: the Indonesian ambassador and consul general, as well as two former United States ambassadors to Indonesia, stood up for a bow.
The performers, said to come from the villiage of Peliatan, are seen in front of simulated temple decor, surrounded by foliage. The gamelan orchestra sits on both sides while the dancer, as they might at home, enter from the temple steps.
To see the musicians raise their mallets in unison as they strike the gamelan instruments is to see and hear choreography at the same time. It is a stupendous sight. And to watch them follow the dancer who appeared as the quivering, glowering warrior in the Baris is to understand the close relationship between musicians and dancers.
In the Legong Keraton, two women in gold and purple costumes first perform a dance sitting on chairs, each twirling a fan. As a male singer begins a storytelling passage about a prince who tries to abduct a princess, the women plunge into a combative dance with impressive ferocity, swatting at one another with branches or placing a flexed foot mercilessly on a foe's body.
The Kecak, or trance dance, in which the men sit in a circle and chant as one imitates a monkey, was rendered confusing by the appearance of several women in their midst. By contrast, there was clarity in in the masked dance known as a Jauk, also in the Raja Pala where a princess lost her veil-like wings to a prince. Universal would be the word for the folk play excerpt, the Barong, in which the lion-like creature of the same name, embodying goodness, prevailed over evil.
Kecak dance is one of Bali’s unusuall dance, not like any other dance, Kecak performed without gamelan. The name is actually taken from the rythim of the chanting ‘monkey’ chorus; cha-chak-cha-cak …
The story behind Kecak is taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana, the dance tells the story of Prince Rama and his rescue of Princess Sita, who has been kidnapped by the evil King of Lanka.
A troupe of over 150 bare-chested men serve as the chorus circling the flame at the centre where the dancer are performing.In the 1930’s Wayan Limbak worked with German painter Walter Spies to create the Kecak from movements and themes in the traditional sanghyang exorcism ritual and the portions of the Ramayana. This collaboration between artists worked to create a dance that was both authentic to Balinese traditions but also palatable to Western tourist’s narrow tastes at the time. Wayan Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.
The story behind Kecak is taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana, the dance tells the story of Prince Rama and his rescue of Princess Sita, who has been kidnapped by the evil King of Lanka.
A troupe of over 150 bare-chested men serve as the chorus circling the flame at the centre where the dancer are performing.In the 1930’s Wayan Limbak worked with German painter Walter Spies to create the Kecak from movements and themes in the traditional sanghyang exorcism ritual and the portions of the Ramayana. This collaboration between artists worked to create a dance that was both authentic to Balinese traditions but also palatable to Western tourist’s narrow tastes at the time. Wayan Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.
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