Balinese Legong and Kecak dances

May 11-12, 2018

One of our plans for the couple days we had in Ubud was to find dance performances to watch. We were not disappointed.

On our first afternoon we walked around town to try to find if there were any shows happening, and almost immediately found a lady selling tickets for a legong show that night. We bought our tickets, and after dinner that night showed up to the temple theater.

This was the backdrop for it.

From previous research, and the pamphlet they gave you when you walked in, we knew that legong is the style of dance, and the music is played by a gamelan orchestra. They're kind of like xylophones or marimbas, played with mallets. There were drums also to accompany it.

The dance told a story of royalty and love and demons, as so many do. The legong dance is so different from any western style dances. Lots of teeny movements with the head and eyes, and hands that would have just one finger moving while the rest of the hand stayed still. A skill I definitely don't posses.

They all had amazingly elaborate costumes. I really enjoyed the butterflies on some of the headdresses that had wings on springs so they flapped with the movement of the lady's head.

This dancer was a magical golden swan that everyone seemed to want to catch.

This guy is a barong, the leader of all the good spirits. He is similar in construction to the Chinese lion dancer costumes, and was fun to watch. He had a bell on the end of his tail which made me happy.

A monkey came out to hang out with the barong. He did mischievous very well, and I was so sure that he was going to go walk around in the crowd, or pull someone up onto stage.

I did find the mask a little creepy though

This guy was an evil prince, consorting with witches and trying to take things over.

The group dances from the ladies were fun, not only because they were dancing beautifully, but also because their faces had slightly different expressions. Some seemed a bit more playful, while others looked a bit startled. I enjoyed the subtlety, intentional or not.

And this was the witch, who had a posse of girls as followers.

I thought it was kind of fun that the evil demon worshipping girls had their hair down and no big headdresses like the other girls had. The change in costume was a very effective way to emphasize their differences in the story.

The royal princes came back.

And they weren't happy that the witch was there. They wanted to get rid of her.

The witch turned into a big ol' demon, who kind of reminded me of a vintage fur coat.

And then got chased away by the barong, defender of good.

The men came back out as warriors to help fight off the evil witch demon.

And then the barong got a celebratory dance. It was a good thing they gave us a pretty comprehensive story at the beginning, otherwise I think I would have been pretty lost as far as the story goes, but it was great fun and wonderful to watch.

The second night we saw a kecak (keh-chak) fire dance. It was unlike anything I've seen before, and wonderfully amazing.

About 50 guys sat in a circle around a fire candelabra centerpiece, and they were the music for the legong dancers. No instruments, just their chanting.

The story that night was of the Ramayana (which I had actually performed in a class in middle school, which was fun) It tells the story of a princess, a prince, and his jealous brother that wants to steal the princess away. He tries to lure her with a golden deer, but it ends up backfiring.

The legong dancers came out to portray the various princess roles.

Then one of them dressed as the golden deer. Her dancing was a little more prancy than the other two.

Good and bad princes came and went during the story.

And all the while the men are chanting away. Mostly they would all be following the pattern, but occasionally one or more of them would deviate and have a different part to add in, then go back to the normal pattern. Sometimes they would all change patterns at once, and I have no idea how they knew when to. It was hard to tell exactly who was doing what part, or doing the single yells in the middle. There were also some sections of slower, more melodic sing chanting.

A couple times they all laid down backwards into the lap behind them, and kept chanting until they all sat up again.

This guy was a good king, and came out to do his part in the dance.

A monkey prince appeared in one part of the story too.

At the end of the first section they cleared the candelabra, and a group of women came out to help with the chanting and two young girls dancing the legong part.

Then the fire dance portion of the kecak fire dance happened. This guy came out with a sack full of dried coconut husks, dumped them in the middle of the stage area, doused them with lighter fluid, and set them on fire.

The kecak singers came back to stand around the edge and chant

And this guy dressed as a horse came out to dance around the fire.

Then while the fire was still burning away pretty good, what does he do but kick it over.

I think my face would have been priceless to take a photo of at that moment.

The coals were raked back into a neat pile again, and then after more dancing around it, he kicked through them again.

It didn't seem to hurt, but his feet were rather black at the end of it.

Again, a super successful cultural experience, and really fun to watch. We were rubbish at it, but Shay and I had fun trying to imitate the chanting for the next couple days too. 5/5, would watch again.