Dance of Bali

Many regard the legong as Bali’s most elegant dance form, accompanied by gamelan. This secular dance graces temple anniversaries while increasingly performed for tourists. Three pubescent girls become tightly bound at the torsos by wrapped fabric, then embellished with gorgeous costumes of exquisite gold neckpieces and cloth panels over colorful silk sarungs. Crowned with golden headgear bearing frangipani blossoms, the girls perform a graceful dance of largely arm and hand movements, while shifting their heads and moving their eyes expressively. The central dancer provides the most animation while the others follow her dance in perfect synchrony. The tight binding adds grace to the dancers’ motions, causing their bodies to arch and sway as they move their feet. Near the end of the dance, the music grows loud and frenzied and the girls dance more vigorously to its doubled tempo.

The baris gede is a sacred dance involving a number of dancers depicting great warriors and performed at temple anniversaries and cremation ceremonies. The baris tunggal is a secular dance by one man presented for entertainment. Males of all ages perform these dances. All wear a conical headdress of glittering leaves, metallic inlays, or shells and opulently embellished silver, gold, and white costumes. Movements involve rapidly darting, intense eye movements (implying vigilance); elegantly lifted, bent legs (often sustained in pose); and upturned toes. Men dancing the baris master exquisite grace in their finger movements, which flicker and curve upward.

Bali’s most internationally famed dance is the kecak (monkey dance). Walter Spies, an influential European artist, choreographed it in 1931. The indigenous Balinese, nonetheless, made the kecak dance their own. The kecak resembles a human mandala. About 100 men sit in a circle surrounding one or two women, who dance in fetching postures. Often the only accompaniment is the loud, frog-like sounds the men emit in syncopated harmony, with interludes of individual singers. The men never rise, but sway back and forth and lean back to lying positions while continuing their rhythmic chants. The dance is a spectacle unlike any other.

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