THE JAUK DANCE-DRAMA

...Chance to fight Cupak in a duel. She promises that his request will be granted.
Having arrived at the palace, she tells her father that she only wants to marry the strongest person in the kingdom of Daha. Many young noblemen try their luck to beat the strong and powerful Cupak but they are all beaten.

If the Wayang Wong performs a story from the epic Mahabharata the dance-drama is called Parwa. The Parwa dancers are also men.

Search This Site

Like the Wayang Wong and the Parwa, the jauk masked dance-drama also performs stories from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, but the form of the dance-movements is different from that of the Wayang Wong and Parwa. From the point of view of its dance-movements the jauk dance is a bit similar to the Baris dance. In the Jauk masked dance-drama all actors wear a Jauk mask except the refined characters such as Rama, Laksmana and Arjuna who wear masks with beautiful faces. The Jauk masks always has violent colours (red, but sometimes also white) and sharp staring eyes and the jauk dancer wears gloves with long nails. The character from the Ramayana danced in the Jauk dance is Rahwana; from the Mahabhrata, Bima. The dancers do not use dialogue, as the whole face is covered by a mask. The narrators or commentators in the dialogue, the penasar and kartala, often do not wear masks at all, or have their faces only half-covered.
The jauk masked dance-drama dates from the 18th century.

THE LEGONG DANCE

The Legong Dance is the dance most familiar to people outside Bali. In comparison with the dances described above the Legong Dance is fairly new, meaning that it has not existed for, centuries; it dates from the 19th century. The term legong is in fact a general term in Bali referring to a women's dance. As the dance developed, however, the term Legong was used especially to denote a dance-drama whose background is a Balinese legend. There are other Balinese dances which belong to Legong dances, such as the Kupu-kupu Tarum, the Kuntul and the Jogbog dances. The Kupu-kupu Tarum dance describes male and female butterflies fluttering in the open air. The Kuntul dance describes herons flying about in the sky, and the Jogbog dance describes monkeys playing with one another in the forest. Now these three dances are no longer called Legong dances but use their own names as mentioned above, and. the Legong Dance proper is the women's dance based on the Balinese legend about the king of Lasem and his beloved Rangkesari.
The Legong used to be a court-dance cultivated in the palaces of the Balinese kings and danced by little girls. The story of the Legong Dance is as follows.

One day the king of Lasem. is walking in the forest. On his way he meets a beautiful girl named Rangkesari (or Langkesari), escorted by two maid-servants. They have lost their way in the forest. The king takes Rangkesari home with him and puts in a stone house, as he intends to marry her. Rangkesari who is really the younger sister of the. king of Daha, does not wish to marry him and locks herself in the house.

The king of Daha is furious when he hears that his sister has been detained by the king of Lasem. The latter feels that he will be beaten if lie faces the king of Daha. Nevertheless he must defend his prestige as a king and they go to war. The king of Lasem is beaten and killed in the battle.

The Legong Dance used to be a real dance-drama (dance-pantomime) performed by a complete number of dancers, all girls, playing the characters. Beside the gainelan (gamelan palegongan) sits the juru tandak (the narrator) who tells the story; it is a dance-drama without dialogue. The characters danced are the king of Lasem, Rangkesari, the Condong, a maid-servant, the penasar, a man