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Ceremonies, Music & Dance
in Bali
In
considering Balinese ceremonies we are faced
with a peculiar situation. There is no lack
of religion, music, dance, shadow plays,
dramas, and other festival. Quite the contrary
is true. There are dozens of them every
day, given by the Balinese themselves for
their own purposes-religious or entertainment.
Bali is a true embarrassment of riches.
A great many important temple ceremonies
are held at regular, scheduled interval.
Rite of passage, such as weddings, cremations,
tooth filing, dedication of new a new temple,
purification and so on are obviously one-time
events. There are also many performances
given in the villages for pure entertainment.
Between the middle of June and the end of
July all programs except for the opening
ceremony and procession are held at Bali
Art Centre on Jalan Nusa Indah, Denpasar.
There are usually about 25 programs schedule
throughout the period of approximately six
weeks. They include all sorts of traditional
and modern dances with musical accompaniment,
contests, and competitions for musicians,
dances, decorators, flower arrangers, and
even a fashion show. There are displays
of offerings, food, clothing, and crafts.
Other more or less regular activities that
are well worthwhile visiting are music and
dances lessons. Which can be shown in two
special government schools for musicians
and dances in SMKI (Sekolah Menengah Kerawitan
Indonesia) at Batubulan and ISI at Jalan
Nusa Indah. These schools often put on special
dance and music shows for visiting dignitaries
or special events.
By far most popular of the tourist shown
is the Barong Dance at Batubulan. In fact,
it is the major industry of the village;
there four separate groups in the area.
The Barong Dance, as it has now been standardized,
is a collection of bits and pieces of traditional
Balinese dances, woven into some sort of
simple story that tourists can follow. The
story is more or less based on a tale from
the Hindu epic. A regular gamelan orchestra,
a modified version of the Gong Kebyar, the
most popular ensemble used in Bali nowadays,
accompanies the whole performance. Rangda
always goes with Barong. She is a witch
with a long tongue, pendulous breasts, long
fingernails, and a magic white cloth, which
she brandishes threateningly. Rangda is
the personification of evil and Barong the
essence of good. Barong and Rangda are examples
of the duality of the Balinese world wherein
positive and negative forces are inseparable,
and which keep balance between good and
evil. Rangda also performed in an important
ceremony called Calonarang, a drama about
a widow in East Java.
A second popular tourist show is Kecak,
or Monkey Dance. It is not sacred; Kecak
has its roots in traditional Balinese dance
and music. The feature of Kecak is a large
chanting chorus of up to 100 men who sit
in concentric circles around a large oil
lamp. Their chant is not a monotonous, but
with great and sudden variations of pitch
and rhythm. At time the chant is melodic,
with raising and falling cadences and chants
in nonsense syllables: “cak, cak, cak,”
like a band of chattering simians.
The Wayang Kulit, or Puppet Shadow play,
is still extremely important and popular
feature of Balinese village religious life.
It is distinctly different from the Javanese
type from which it was derived. The music
instruments, which usually accompany the
performance, called Gender Wayang. Wayang
Kulit is performed in the villages at all
kinds ceremonies, from simple rites of passage,
such as wedding, to large and elaborate
cremations. The stories are usually taken
from the Hindu epics, Ramayana or Mahabarata
Arja, sometime called Balinese opera, is
a common source of entertainment at temple
festivals. This art form is somewhat different
from the other dances or dramas in that
the dancers sing and dance at the same time,
with the vocal line being more important
than the dance itself and more important
than the musical accompaniment. The other
Balinese group performance named Drama Gong;
it is still a very popular form of village
entertainment. Performances are often held
in the local movie house. A simple gong
accompanies the performance.
Joged Bungbung the popular among the other
social dances. The word Bungbung refers
to a length of hallows bamboo. Unlike the
bronze-keyed, xylophone-like instruments
of musical groups that accompany most of
the performance described above, the keys
of this ensemble are tuned lengths of bamboo,
struck with rubber covered mallets held
in both hand.
A kite flying festival has been popular
now in Bali. The festival is held in Denpasar,
usually in the windy, dry season in July-September.
The kites, many from foreign countries,
are unbelievably large, often requiring
a dozen men to carry them. And they are
often fitted with a long string that vibrates
in the wind, sending down a very loud humming
sound.
There are also many traditional Balinese
dances which is interesting to be shown
likes Legong, Baris, Topeng (mask dance),
Kebyar Duduk, Sanghyang dance, jogged bungbung,
janger, etc that you can find during your
vacation in Bali. (BTN/S-N book)
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