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DANCE THE KEBIYAR Interest in kebiyar waned after Mario's illness. To dance the kebiyar it is necessary to have what the Balinese call a " good " face, expressive and mobile, and to possess elegance, intensity and personal magnetism, besides highly finished technical training. Mario had great musical knowledge and one of his specialties was to play the trompong while he danced, twirling the sticks in his fingers and moving with great agility along the scale of inverted bronze bowls. The kebiyar was very popular during Mario's time, especially among the men. It was frequently performed as an interpretation of kekawin, epic poems chanted in the archaic language by expert story-tellers, while Mario translated into movement the episodes of the poems with that curious detachment of pure rhythm and abstract gesture so typically Balinese. Good dancers of kebiyar are rare today; of Mario's pupils, only one, I Gusti Rake, also of Tabanan, has inherited Mario's intensity and style, and he is becoming as famous as Mario once was.
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