Bali Dances

...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.

servant taking the side of the king of Lasem, the crow, who is the simbol of death, and the king of Daha. Nowadays, however, the Legong Dance is only danced by three of four girls, who play the Condong, the king of - Lasem, Rnngkcsari and the crow. The first dancer is the Condong, then follows the love dance between the king of Lasem and Rangkesari. The last is the fight between the king of Lasem and the crow, who is the symbol of death,

Each Balinese king used to have Legong,s whose dancers were taken from the village girls. The Legong dancers are well taken care of, but when they reach maturity (fifteen years of age) they must leave their profession as dancers to marry. As the Legong Dance used to be well cultivated in the palaces, it is also often called Legong Keraton, meaning Legong of the court.

THE JANGER DANCE

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The Janger Dance is a dance for women whose origin is the women's chorus of the Sanghyang Dance. As the men's chorus accompanying the Sanghyang Dance developed into a separate dance composition of its own called the Kecak Dance, the women's chorus developed into a separate dance composition of its own called the janger Dance. There are various compositions of the Janger Dance. There is a combination of Janger and Kecak and there is also a development into a dance-drama. If the Janger Dance takes the form of a drama, only the protagonists dance in- a standing position, the others sitting while they sing. The Janger Dance is very gay; besides being full of songs, sung in turn by the Janger and the Kecak, it is also accompanied by the suling (flute), kendang (drum) and ketuk, of the Balinese gamelan.

THE PREMBON DANCE-DRAMA

Prembon is a combination of several elements of Balinese dance dramas from the ancient Gambuh to the Parwa. It is the most flexible dance-drama form presenting any kind of stories including the Ramayana, Mahabharata and historical stories. Prembon was created during the 1940's.

THE KEBYAR DANCE

The Kebyar Dance, a solo-dance, is a comparatively new composition. It developed at the beginning of the 20th century and comes from North Bali, where it is danced in two ways, a sitting position and a standing position. Around the year 1915 a Jauk dancer from South Bali, I Mario, was attracted by this dance composition and rearranged it to be danced in a squatting or sitting position.
In comparison with other dance-,compositions, I Mario's creation of the Kebyar Dance is very difficult to dance. Since it is danced entirely in a sitting position, it is called the Kebyar Duduk.

The Kebyar Duduk is danced by a man who must be very skillful in controlling the difficult dance-movements. The dancer, although in a sitting position, changes places by shifting his legs and by walking.

The word kebyar meaning lightning is the sound of the beginning of a newer Balinese music, in which the instruments are beaten together forcefully with a very quick rhythm creating the sound byar. One special quality of the Kebyar Duduk is that, even though the rhythm of the accompanying gamelan is very quick, the dancer can dance to it vigorously without destroying its artistic values.

JOGED

The Joged is the only social dance that is found everywhere in Bali. The joged has many variations: the Gandrung, Oleg and joged