MUSIC

THE DANCE
A FOCUS OF BALINESE LIFE

TOPENG Gong. Masked actors playing local historical plays (babad); mostly pantomine, but with dialogue by the comic characters.

KEBIYAR Gong kebiyar. A modern dance purely demonstrative in character, performed by a boy dancer who interprets musical moods.

GAMBUH Gamelan gambuh; flutes, violin, and percussions. The classic technique for dramatic performances. Stories from the Malat, with much singing. Other plays of a similar character are the tantri, tjupak, basur, and parwa.

ARDJA Gamelan ardja; flutes and percussions. The ardja is a modernized gambuh playing romantic stories like Tjandra Lasan, Salya, Sidapaksa, Galolikuh, and Chinese tales like Sampik and Tuan Wei.

BARONG LANDONG Gamelan batel; flutes and gongs. Giant puppets of a religious character, playing humorous stories, the adventures of in old woman (djero luh) and a black giant (djero gede).

DJANGER Gamelan djanger; flute, gong, and drums. A modern musical comedy with many foreign elements, performed by boys and girls.

KETJAK Large groups of men singing in chorus, moving and dancing to the rhythm of the music. Occasionally performing episodes of plays. Derived from the sanghyang and djanger.

All these forms will be described later, divided for easier recognition according to our custom under the headings of " dance," “ plays, " opera," and so forth, by their most characteristic features..

I like music, dancing has developed to a standard of technical , perfection that makes of it a difficult science, requiring years of special physical training and practice. Although strict rules are followed and the structure of the dance is made up entirely of traditional gestures that leave no room for improvisation or individualistic styles, there is a certain margin of freedom allowed for the dancer.

Sound and gesture become one, definite movements ruled by the most rigid discipline. The excellence of a performer does not depend only on his skill, but also on his personality, his emotional intensity, and the expressiveness of his features. Only clowns (bebanyolan) have no special technique and no program. personality and the spirit of surprise are expected of them.

Obviously there is Javanese influence discernible in the Balinese school of dancing, but they have drifted so far apart in spirit and in social function that they have little in common today. In Bali dancing is still a living popular art, while in Java, where dance of the higher order was dying until rescued in recent years by the sultans, today it is only in the high courts of the Javanese princes that fine dancing can be seen.

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