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THE DANCES OF BALI - Part 3
PENDET AND PANYEMBRAMA
These dances are performed welcome visiting gods, who are presented with offerings of flowers. Nowadays tourists are also showered with flowers.
THE KEBYAR DANCE
The renewal of the arts during the 30's saw a surge in dance creativity, producing dances that are still the most popular in Bali: short but spectacular non-narrative dances inspired by the dynamism of the gong kebyar, a gameIan orchestra originating from Northern Bali. The most famous are the kebyar duduk and kebyar trompong. The two dances were created by Mario, a Balinese dance genius from this century. They are displays of suppleness and virtuosity, particularly the kebyar trompong, with the dancer playing the trompong instrument while dancing.
THE JOGED DANCE
The Joged Bumbung is one of the few exclusively secular dances of Bali, in which the brightly-dressed dancer invites men from the crowd to dance with her in a pretence of seduction. The music is made with bumbung (baMboo) instruments. This dance is very popular with tourists.
The dance begins 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. He (the pengibing) comes on stage to hoots from the audience, and is expected to be as adept at teasing as the women dancer. The better he is, the louder the cheers and roars from the crowd. He may try to pinch her, dance hip to hip with her, or even behave like an angry lover and try to hit her.
THE WAYANG (SHADOW PUPPET) SHOW
The wayang puppet show is perhaps the most famous show in Balinese theatre, albeit the most difficult to understand. Basically an epic narrative, it is the key to Bali's unique world of myths, symbols and religious beliefs.
The puppet master, or datang, tells his story by projecting the shadows of the puppets he manipulates behind a white screen and a large lamp. He plays several characters at once, shifting from Old-Javanese to High-Balinese, singing and hitting a box to mark the rhythm. A good dalang is a one-man-show, being in turns smart, funny and melancholic.
The datang borrows the frame of his narrative from the great epics of the Indo-Javanese tradition, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, although other stories may sometimes be used. He then creates his own episodes, usually concerning a hero's quest for a magical weapon, heavenly secret or partner. The hero, accompanied by buffoons, succeeds eventually after tortuous adventures in the wilderness and fights with evil giants. The two sets of puppets - the heroes on the right, villains on the left - symbolise the eternal struggle between good and evil. But for the audience, the datang's ability to poke fun at everyone through the mouths of the buffoons is no less important than the narrative.
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