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| Kecak Dance of Bali Island source: source: jeromangkutedja.p.ht |
Almost all of us know KECAK, a Balinese traditional dance. It is combined of dance and musical drama originated from Bali Island which is very popular. The dance is done by a group of men, usually consist of 150 people or more. They are sitting on the ground and taking a circular position. The dancers wear cloth mounted circular waist, shouting the word "cak" and throwing "weapon". The dance story about Ramayana battle, in which a white monkey named Hanuman helped King Rama against King Ravana who abducted his wife. Unfortunately, it might be not all of us know how this dance originally evolved.
source: demotix.com
KECAK was originally a ritual dance accompanied by male chorus. A German painter and musician Walter Spies was very interested in the ritual when living in Bali in the 1930s. He developed into a dance and musical drama by taking the background story of Hindu Ramayana. At the time it would serve just for western tourists.
Lately he worked with Wayan
Limbak, a Balinese dancer, to further develop this dance. The native dancer
then popularized KECAK through the journey around the world with a group of
Bali dancers.
