Bali Spirit Festival-Dance of Love

INHALE-March 8th-12th.This retreat will offer strong Anusara (inspired)yoga classes daily with Andrea (Andi)Franchini, Inspired Qi Gong classes with Ken Yamaguchi- Clark. He brings this ancient form to you as a divine sacred dance and with special guest Mama Kia who will speak on living life fully " off the mat" through Seva along with practical steps to take for receiving the support needed to live a life in service to others. This is truly an integration of healing , performing and living arts!
10% of the proceeds will go to Casa de Milagros in support of Mama Kia and her extensive projects and inspiration.
EXHALE-March 13th-16th. Series of workshops in yoga, dance, martial arts,drumming with nightly concerts ,kirtans, and performances. Our climax is a half-day celebration featuring performances by all of the incredible artists participating in this festival. On the Morning of the final day, we will enter the Sacred Monkey Forrest for a mass blessing by local Balinese priests in the inner santuary of the temple.

* private bodywork sessions will be available during the entire portion of the festival with Ken Yamaguchi-Clark. The session incorporate a variety of modalities including: breathwork, Qi Gong/movement meditation, skilled touch and energy work; guided meditation; skeletal-muscular work; Swedish and Deep Tissue massage; assisted stretching and Thai Yoga Massage; as well as
personal coaching for practice building. The sessions will leave you with deeper awareness (and in many cases significant personal insights) as well as greater openness, ease and mobility and relief from pain and tension and some next steps to maintain a more relaxed and open state for work, life, performance, artistry, activism and or personal practice.
Pre-festival Nyepi Celebration( day of silence): March 5-7th
(optional for early arrivals on March 5/6)
* The spirit that unites this festival is an offering, a celebratory means of honoring our spiritual-selves while giving back to Bali.

Culture Dances

In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.

Connoisseurs hold the dance in highest esteem and spend hours discussing the merits of various Legong groups. The most popular of Legongs is the Legong Kraton, Legong of the palace. Formerly, the dance was patronized by local rajas and held in e puri, residence of the royal family of the village. Dancers were recruited from the aptest and prettiest children. Today, the trained dancers arestill- very young; a girl of fourteen approaches the age of retirement as a Legong performer.

The highly stylized Legong Kraton enacts a drama of a most purified and abstract kind. The story is performed ' by three dancers: the condong, a female attendant of the court, and two identically dressed legongs (dancers),who adopt the roles of royal persons. Originally, a storyteller sat with the orchestra and chanted the narrative, but even this has been refined away in many Legongs. Only the suggestive themes of the magnificent gamelan gong (the full Balinese orchestra) and the minds of the audience conjure up imaginary changes of scene in the underlying play of Legong Kraton.

The story derives from the history of East Java in the 1 2th and 1 3th centuries: when on a journey the King of Lasem finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in the forest. He takes her home and locks her in a house of stone. Rangkesari's brother, the Prince of Daha, learns of her captivity and threatens war unless she is set free.

Rangkesari begs her captor to avoid war by giving her liberty, but the king prefers to fight. On his way to battle, he is met by a bird of ill omen that predicts his death. In the fight that ensues he is killed. The dance dramatizes the farewells of the King of Laserm as he departs for the battlefield and his ominous encounter with the bird. It opens with an introductory solo by the condong. She moves with infinite suppleness, dipping to the ground and rising in one unbroken motion, hertorso poised in an arch with elbows and head held high, while fingers dance circles around her wrists. Slowly, her eyes focus on two fans laid before her and, taking them, she turns to meet the arrival of the legongs.

The tiny dancers glitter and dazzle. Bound from head to foot in gold brocade, it is a wonder the legongs can move with such fervent agitation. Yet, the tight composure of the body, balanced by dynamic directive gestures-the flash of an eye, the tremble of two fingers blend in unerring precision.After as hort dance, the condong retires, leaving the legongs to pantomime the story within the dance. Like a controlled line of an exquisite drawl ing, the dancers flowfrom one identity intothel next without disrupting the harmony of t dance. They may enter as the double image one' character, their movements marked tight synchronization and rhythmical verve Then they may split, each enacting a separate role, and come together in complementary halves to form a unified pattern, as in the plan ful love scene in which they "rub noses The King of Lasem bids farewell to his queen, and takes leave of Rangkesari. She repels his advances by beating him with he fananddepartsin anger. lt is then the condong reappears as a bird with wild eyes fixed upon the king. Beating its golden wings to a strange flutter of cymbals, it attacks the king in a vain attempt to dissuade him from war. The ancient narrative relates: ". .. a black bird came flying out of the northeast and swooped down upor the king, who saw it and said, 'Raven, hoi come you to swoop down on me? In spiteo; all, 1 shall go out and fight. This 1 shall do, oh raven!... With the king's decision understood the dance may end; or the other legong may return on stage as his prime minister, and shimmering unison, they whirl thefinal stepsi: war.

Balinese Dance

Balinese Dance

Theater and dance is an integral part of Balinese culture. Balinese dances are famous all over the world and the Balinese themselves take them very seriously. Birthdays, weddings, and temples festivals are all occasions for dramatic performances and dance is inextricably linked with the Balinese religion. The commercial performances for tourists that are today offered on a daily basis in several places of Bali do, of course, not have the same religious significance and atmosphere of a dance that is performed at a real temple festival.

	The Kecak is an unusual Balinese dance for a couple of reasons. First, there is no musical accompaniment. The gamelan is not there. Rhythm is provided by a chanting 'monkey' chorus. The polyrhythmic sound of the chanting provides the name, 'Ke-chak'. For reservation, please contact 99Bali
	If black magic prevails, a village fails into danger, and extensive purification ceremonies become necessary to restore a proper equilibrium for the health of the community. Dramatic art is also a mea of cleansing the village by strengthening its resistance to harmful forces through offerings, prayers and acts of exorcism. Such is the symbolic play of the two remarkable presences-the Barong and Rangda. Barong, a mystical creature with a long swaybackand curved tail, representstheaffirmative, the protector of mankind, the glory of the high sun, and the lavorable spirits associated with the right and.white magic.
	He took the costume from Kebyar Legong, but to move in a squatting position he had to hold up the train with one hand as he moved and this became the hallmark of the dance. The mood of Kebyar Duduk is determined by the music, and the dancer works in close co-ordination with the entire gamelan to interpret its shifting colors.
	In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.

bali Ladies do a dance

In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.

Dancer Ladies

Legong dance Considered as the most dazzling of all Balinese Dances. Swathed in cocoons of gold-plaited fabrics, dancers perform interpretations of litteraly classics. Two prepubescent young girls is choosen for good looks and supple physiques. If they look alike, is much better. Their training begins at the age of four or five and they retire at about the age of 13. They are bound tightly in sarongs and chest cloths of opulent green or pink with gilded crowns filled with frangipani blossoms on their heads. Extraordinary muscular control, including the ones of the eyes, and great physical endurance are required in this dance. A good Balinese legong dancer can be judge solely by the suppleness of of her little finger.
		The performance begins with a solo dance by the condong, a court lady dressed in pink and gold. She then welcomes the two legong with a pair of fans. dressed identically in bright green and gold, the two legong play the stor, adopting and swaping characters apparently at random. At the climax, the condong returns as the raven, with pink wings attached to her costume.

Sejarah Tari Janger

Pada abad ke-19, di Banyuwangi hidup suatu jenis teater rakyat yang disebut Ande-Ande Lumut karena lakon yang dimainkan adalah lakon Andhe-Andhe Lumut. Dan dari sumber cerita dari mulut ke mulut, pelopor lahirnya Janger ini adalah Mbah Darji, asal Dukuh Klembon, Singonegaran, Banyuwangi kota. Mbah Darji ini adalah seorang pedagang sapi yang sering mondar-mandir Banyuwangi-Bali, dan dari situ dia tertarik dengan kesenian teater Arja dan dia pun berkenalan dengan seniman musik bernama Singobali yang tinggal di Penganjuran, dari situlah kemudian terjadi pemaduan antara teater Ande-Ande Lumut dengan unsure tari dan gamelan Bali, sehingga lahirlah apa yang disebut Damarwulan Klembon atau Janger Klembon.

Semenjak itu, mulai lahir grup-grup Damarwulan di seantero Banyuwangi. Mereka bukan hanya memberikan hiburan, namun juga menyisipkan pesan-pesan perjuangan untuk melawan penjajah dengan kedok seni. Di masa revolusi, kerap kali para pejuang kemerdekaan menyamar sebagai seniman Janger untuk mengelabui Belanda dan para mata-matanya.

Menurut Dasoeki Nur, seorang pelaku kesenian Janger, teater ini juga sempat berkembang hingga melampaui wilayah Banyuwangi sendiri. Bahkan menurutnya lagi, pada tahun 1950an pernah berdiri dua kelompok Janger yang berada di wilayah Samaan, dan Klojen, kota Malang.

Tari Legong (Legong Dance)

legong dance

The Legong dance might be the most interesting and graceful dance in the island, A legong is a girl, a young girl not older than early teens. According to the legend, this dance was inspired by the imagination of a king in 19 century. Others said that Legong was inspired by the dream of a King about goddess, the King then search the entire kingdom to find dance gurus and train them hard to make the dream close to reality.

The Legong Dance is a classic dance that has a very complex library of movement that flow along with gamelan. The word “Legong” is from the word “leg” mean elastic, elegance, and the word “gong” mean the music, so the Leg - Gong is a dance represents the epitomy of grace and femininity. The dancer has to let all the energy of the gamelan’s sounds flow to their body untill you feel shaking. The hands are the most mesmerizing, as the arms move up and about, the fingers are doing a dance of their own. They can make individual pairs of fingers flutter simultaneously, at the same time, the eyes are darting from left to right.

The story behind legong is very stylized and symbolic, involves three dancers, the two legong and their attendant, the congong. The legongs are beautifully dressed tightly with gold brocade that so surprising they can move so rapidly.