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Balinese dances are a very ancient dance tradition that is a part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people, native to Bali island, Indonesia. Balinese dance is dynamic, angular and intensely expressive. The Balinese dancers express the story of dance-drama through the whole bodily gestures; fingers, hands and body gestures to head and eyes movements.Most of dances in Bali are connected to Hindu rituals, such as the Sanghyang Dedari sacred dance than invoked hyang spirits that believed to possess the dancers in trance state during the performance. Other Balinese dances are not linked to religious rituals and created for certain purposes, such as Pendet welcoming dance and Joged dance that is social dance for entertainment purpose.Traditional Balinese dances are the oldest form of performing arts in Bali. Traditional dances can be divided into two types, sacred dance called Wali and entertainment dance called Bebalihan. Wali (sacred dance) is usually performed in some ritual ceremonies only because it has strong magical powers and only can be performed by specific dancers. Bebalihan are usually performed in social events. In addition to entertain, Bebalihan also has other purposes such as: welcoming guests, celebration of harvests, or gathering crowds. Bebalihan has more variations than Wali.

Puspa Wresti (Welcome Dance)This dance represents the joyful reception of god for a temple celebration.  Performed at the beginning of a show by a number of young girls, the dance is meant to welcome the audience with appreciation and peace.

Panyembrama (The Welcome Dance

the dance was performed for the first time at the Pandaan Festival in 1971, and now Panyembrama Dance is not only performed on the commercial stage, but is also performed as the opening dance of religious ceremonies in temples.Among the new dances it is often performed. Panyembrama (Greeting distinguished guests) is widely used as an opening welcome dance for dignitaries and tourists

Cendrawasih (the Dance of the Birds of Paradise) is a recent creation. This dance portrays the Cendrawasih, a beautiful bird of paradise.  The dancers enact the displays, behaviours and arrogance of these birds in traditional Balinese fashion.

TelekDancers wearing

white masks perform this

dance illustrating the battle

between virtue and vice. 

Derived from the ancient India

epic Ramayana and

Mahabharata

Telek dance depicts the traditional

Balinese view that everything has two

sides; that the world is knit together with

two opposing elements

Kelinci (Rabbit Dance)

This dance created by a

graduate of the Academy of

Performing Arts was designed to

convey the cuteness of

rabbits.  It is performed by young girls

and is very cute.

Panji Semirang

This is the story of a princess who changes her name and cuts her hair because her husband has

married another woman. 

She pretends to be a man and goes to live in

the forest followed by her

helpers

Panji Semirang

Panji Semirang

Panji Semirang

Tarunajaya (The Victory of Youth)

Tarunajaya (The Victory of Youth) is one of Bali's

most celebrated Kebyar pieces.

The fast brilliance of the

music offers scope for great

virtuoso performance

Olèg Tamulilingan (The Dance of the Bumblebees)

Among the many virtuoso dances, one deserves

special mention. It is Olèg Tamulilingan, the dance

of the bumblebees, which was unique in featuring a

male-female duet and was commissioned by the English impressario John

Coast for the Balinese tour of the UK and USA in

the early 1950s. Since then the number of

Balinese dances has burgeoned.

It is unclear when Balinese virtuoso dance began. While some accounts place its origin in the seventeenth century, such a date is entirely speculative. It seems far more likely that the kind of dance for which Bali became famous began to emerge at the end of the pre-colonial period in the last decades of the nineteenth century when foreign theatre and dance forms, like Chinese opera and Stamboel, reached the island from Java. For it would appear that virtuoso dance was a complex cultural response to political and social changes going on in Balinese society. The old feudal order, faced with defeat by the Dutch, committed mass suicide and Bali became the favourite playground for an international artistic élite and, subsequently, tourists. To meet the demands of these visitors, who expected something similar to their idea of virtuoso dance, such as ballet, the Balinese adapted their theatre and temple dances, by creating tari lepas - 'free dance', that is dance stripped of its historical, literary and cultural context.

The earliest, and still the most famous, of these dances, Lègong, probably dates from the late 1880s when it was danced by males. It was not until the 1920s that Lègong assumed something like its present form and bloomed into a rich genre of which Lègong Kuntul is a beautiful example. Around 1914-16 in North Bali, where the Dutch had first arrived, a brilliant new form of gamelan music, Kebyar, emerged and with it gradually much more dynamic dances. When the Japanese invaded the Netherlands East Indies, including Bali, in 1942, the new military commander commissioned bebancihan, or cross-gender, dance, where young women danced male roles, a genre that has remained popular.

Legong

Legong is a traditional Balinese dance originally performed in the palace courtyard to entertain the king.  There are several stories that can be enacted but it is always performed by young female dancers in colourful outfits with elaborate headdresses.  The dance is characterized by intricate finger movements, expressive gestures and exaggerated eye movements.

Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama that developed in the 1930s in Bali. It is performed primarily by men, although by 2006, a few women's kecak groups exist.

Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 150 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana. The monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance

There is a great richness of dance forms and styles in Bali; and particularly notable are those ritualistic dance dramas which involve Rangda, the witch and the great beast Barong. In Bali there are various categories of dance, including epic performances such as the omnipresent Mahabharata and Ramayana. Certain ceremonies at village temples feature a special performance of a dance-drama, a battle between the mythical characters Rangda, the witch representing evil, and Barong, the lion or dragon, representing good.Among the dance traditions in Bali, the following deserve special mention:

LegongBarongKecak

Barong dancer

Barong is a well known

mythological dance in Bali

and it is narrating the fight between good and evil.

Barong represents the good spirit and

Rangda the evil spirit. The Barong is a

large lion type creature. A

battle ensues and the

Barong's followers begin

to attack Rangda with

their daggers.

Barong

Rangda and Barong

Rangda, being a witch, is able to

use magical powers to turn the daggers against their

owners, who fall into a trance and

try to stab themselves.

The Barong, also having magical powers, protects his followers from harm and Rangda retreats into the forest to rest and prepare for the next battle. The trance of the Barong`s followers is often very real and therefore there is always a priest on hand to revive the dancers with holy water

Text and pictures: Internet

Copyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu

www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Ni Madé Pujawati dances Tarunajaya