Local Legong Folkloric Dance Show

2 videos

One of the cultural components of our 2-day authentic Bali experience was the Bali Legong Dance, a traditional 18th Century Balinese dance (also called the Keraton Dance). The beginning of the Legong Dance in Bali started with a King of Sukawati named I Dewa Agung Made Karna (1775-1825 AD). The story is that he dreamed of seeing an angel dancing in heaven wearing a headdress made of gold and looking like fans and every curve of the dance required a very perfect move. The king ordered 9 sacred masks be made and the dance be created to be performed at Jogan Agung Temple according to his dream. The Legong dance eventually spread to villages in the 19th Century where the art of this dance was taught to the community. The technique disappeared for many years and has been revived since 1960.

It has giving birth to many types of palegongan (the music relies on a five-tone pelog scale) and intricate movements and traditional gambuh dances. The mythical stories such as Ramayana and Mahabharata are the basis of the dance and accompanied by gamelan (percussion) music. Gamelan are traditional Balinese musical instruments played by several people featuring a series of tuned metal bars that are struck with mallets, drums and gongs (gender ramban, gangsa jongkong, kemong gong, kempluk gong, klenang gong, kerumungan drums, flute, fiddle, jublag, jegog, gerantang-- yes, I looked up and viewed each one) and additionally there are someone as a narrator who sings a poem in the tembang style.

The musical story told is the basic 12th century Panji story of King Lasem who proposed to the daughter of the Daha kingdom named Rangeksari but the princess refused and is later kidnapped and the King of Kediri declared war. King Lasem found out and a Garuda bird who came to help free the princess injured him in a fierce battle, helping the King of Kediri and killing the King of Lasem, finally freeing the princess and taking over the Lasem kingdom.

This is generally slow and artistic movements vs the previous show which was filled with a hypnotic chat and fast movement, not to mention fire scene.Read more