A Dance in the Evening

The Kecak (Monkey dance) is one of the most famous traditional Balinese dances. There are very many different types of Kecak dances throughout Indonesia, but in Bali it is called Kecak Ramayana. The whole story is based off of a story in the Hindu Bhavghad Gita and is put into a play in dance form.

We trotted through the gate and entered the open air theater. I think the play was set in a temple put I could not tell completely because there were too many people.

They started by lighting a multi-layered chandelier in the middle. Once it was lit a group of about 30 people came out in checkered skirts. I found the costumes very interesting. they were very eleborate and decorative. Some of them were monkey costumes, one was an eagle, and there were a couple more. Though they did not look precicely like the animal, there was art made into the animal so needed to really think to find out what animal it was.

There was only a little bit of talking, but a lot of chanting. When they did talk, they were either speaking the old Balinese language or modern Indonesian.

After the play, there was something called the trance dance. There was a lot of chanting and it as supposed to allow “the horse rider” to cross the fire. There was a giant fire in the middle which he did run through one time or another.

Below: Gate

Below: Kecak dance

Below: Trance dance