Bali Dance Festival 2009

30th BALI ART FESTIVAL Legong Leko dance Jun 21, '08 1:44 AM
for everyone
Legong is a long-established genre of Balinese dance that
achieved its modern form between about 1915 and 1935. The genre is
regarded as a treasury of the movements for Balinese women’s dance,
and no dancer’s training is complete if she lacks a solid grounding in
legong. In the past, legong dances were presented as a secular entertainment
for the village nobility—hence the name legong keraton, which
means palace legong. Legong is now performed for Balinese as an entertainment
at festivals and major social events. It is most often presented
at temple ceremonies, where, being a secular dance (tari balih-balihan),
it is relegated to the outer courtyard, a nonsacral space. It is given also
at concerts specially organized for tourists. In these, the legong dance
is one of a potpourri of dances most of which
Tari Leko or Leko dance is basically is a kind of legong dance come from Tista Village Tabanan regency - Bali

Hindu Dance

In Hinduism, dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. The creative and reproductive balance is often personified as Shiva's wife, Durga, sometimes called Uma, Parvati, or Kali. This has significance in Balinese Hinduism, since the common figure of Rangda is similar in many ways to Durga^[1]. In Bali there are various categories of dance (i.e. barong, legong, kecak)^[2] including epic performances such as the omnipresent Mahabharata^[3] and Ramayana. Bali dancers learn the craft as children from their mothers as young as age 4 (see a nine years old dancer on the right). In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble specific to Java, Bali^[4] and Malaya. Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet are coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds. The number of codified hand positions and gestures, the mudras^[5][6][7], is higher in India than in Java or Bali. It has been speculated that they have been forgotten as the dance was transmitted from India to Java^[8]. Hand positions and gestures are nonetheless as important in Javanese and Balinese dance as in India^[9]. Whether in India, Indonesia or Cambodia, hands have a typically ornamental role and emphasize the dance's delicate intricacy.

The creation of Bali and javanese dance

TARI PAJEMBRAMA
This is a Balinese dance of welcome. Perfomed in Bali at
the beginning of an artistic ceremony.
It permits the temple dancers to welcome
the visiters and to pay them homage with a rain of flower petals.

OLEG TAMBULILINGAN
This is a Balinese dance that evokes the love between two bumblebees.
This dance is one of the last creations of the celebrated dance teacher, I Mario, in the 1950's.

TARUNAJAYA
This Balinese dance expresses the character of a young man who is proud and sure of himself, in the prime of his life. "Taruna" means "young man" and "Jaya" means "victorious". But his mood changes quickly, sometimes he is smiling and sometimes angry or provocitive. This dance is from Northern Bali known for its fast and dynamic music.

TARI BELIBIS
This is a new Balinese dance creation which represents young herons
with their mother in the middle of a pond flying here and there looking for food.

WIRA PERTIWI
This is a relatively recent creation by a renowned central Javanese choreographer,Bagong Kusiardjo, whose compositions are inspired by the basic gestures and expressions of Balinese and Javanese dance. This dance represents a woman warrior armed with a bow and arrow."Wira" means "warrior" and "Pertiwi" means "homeland".

JAIPONGAN
Jaipongan is a danse style of working-class origins from the Sunda region in west Java. It integrates martial art movements but in a "hidden" way. The music and singing have Arabic infuences.Originally this dance wae performed in the villages for weddings. A female dancer would improvise and then invite the guests to dance.The Jaipongan has again become very popular and is performed for diverse occasions.

Balinese and Javanese Dance

Of Hindu origin, in which dance signifies creation, dance traveled to Indonesia where it found its own means of expression.The Balinese and Javanese dances that we know today have existed for centuries. The first evidence of these dances can be seen in the bas-reliefs on the Borobudur Temple, in central Java, constructed in the 8th century A.D. borobudurBalinese dance is tightly connected to religion. The peak is situated somewhere around the 16th century during the era of the great Hindu kingdoms. During the 1920's and 1930's Balinese dance found a new élan. New dances, which were shorter and used in non-religious occasions, were created from the old forms.Javanese dance was originaly a court dance, performed during ceremonies in the court.Starting at the beginning of this century and especially during the last few decades many new dances have been created from more modern inspiration.