Dance and Drama Highlight in Bali,The following are brief descriptions of some well-known dance-drama that can be seen at regular performance,throughout bali,
Baris This is warrior's dance. It is usually performed by men, either solo or in a group of five or more.
Barong & Rangda This is basically a story about the struggle between good and evil. Good is personified by barong keket, a strange, fun-loving creature in the shape of shaggy semi-lion. Evil is represented by rangda, a witch
Kecak The most famous of the balinese dance, the kecak originated from sanghyang dance choirs, who chant a distinctive "Kecak-kecak" accompaniment. The kecak, as a dance, develop in the 1930's in the village of bona, where its still performed regularly.
Legong This dance tells the story of princess Rangkesari who is held captive againts her will by king Lakesmi.Rangkesari brother, prince daha, gathers an army together to rescue his sister. The legong is very classical and graceful dance and is always performed by prepubescent girls, often as young as eight or nine years old.
Sanghyang Trance Dance The sanghyang dedari is performed by two girls, and is very similar in style to the legong; the main different is that the girls are supposedly untrained and can keep in perfect time each other ,even though their eyes are firmly shut. In Sanghyang Jaran, a nut palm hobbyhorse. This is frequently called the "Fire Dance". In both dances, a priest is always on hand to help bring the dancer out of their trance state at the end of the performance.
Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Wayang Kulit is one of the great story telling traditions of the javanese and balinese. The wayang show normally consist of a small 4 pieces of orchestra,which provides the musical accompaniment , around 60' puppets' carved out of water buffalo hide and the dalang, or Puppet-master. Good characters normally speak in ancient 'Kawi' and evil or coarse character speak balinese. www.bali-agung-tours.com BaliTours : SUPER SAVER !!!!