A Dance for Every Day
Beyond the Story
Some dances have a story, often based on the old Indian epics, the is almost impossible for the new spectator to follow the plot. Boys dance girls' parts, girls dance boys' parts. You can not tell which are which; both wear heavy make – up. The same person may dance several roles, and scenes change with the barest of announcements. It's best just to sit back and enjoy the extreme beauty of the movements, the expressions, and the dazzling costumes. Lose your self in the subtle, intricate, percussive sounds.
Many dances do not have a story, or at the most a very subliminal one. The most famous Balinese dance , the legong, is a good example - others are the pendet and gabor, which are dances to welcome the deities to a ceremony. More than the story, it's the rhythm, the atmosphere, and the feeling for space that bring the magic. In such dances, faces are like masks, emotion is underplayed, and even the gestures are abstract, although a few have dramatic meanings – shading the eyes with the hand indicates weeping; first and second fingers pointing at the end of a stiffly-extended arm is a gesture of anger or denunciation. Eyes move quickly from side to side to stress the rhythms and accents.
Because the epics on which the dances are based have a deep symbolic meaning, the characters exist in their own formal, spiritual world. There are stock characters who represent respected or not so respected qualities. The king and queen are refined or halus. The witches and monsters are coarse or kasar . They all have their own stylised movements and dress, and they speak in Kawi, an old language that few understand. The only real individuals are the clowns, who improvise, joke, and explain to the audience, in Balinese, what is happening onstage.
