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Dance and Drama
The Gods Dance on Earth
Surely one of the most
unforgettable sights in Bali is the spectacle of a dancer
moving in trance. Possessed by the energy of the gods who
are called down to earth at temple ceremonies, these dancers
are able to perform extraordinary physical acts and to act
as mediums for divine power. These performances are called
Sanghyang, from the Balinese word for a revered deity. More
than any other Balinese art form, they blur the lines
between art and devotion, body and spirit, leaving a
spellbound audience to wonder: are these really “dances”?
Or are they holy religious rites? Is it the ecstasy of the
soul or the disciplined training of limbs and mind that is
responsible for their beauty and passion? The only way to
decide is to witness a performance for yourself.
In the Sanghyang Jaran,
or horse trance, a group of male dancers, accompanied by a
chanting chorus who invite the gods to descend, fall into
trance. Possessed by the deities, they rush to grab “horses”
made of palm leaves, and ride these steeds through piles of
burning coals, scooping up the fire with their bare hands
and showering themselves with the red hot embers. When the
dancers are brought out of trance by a priest equipped with
healing holy water, they are miraculously unhurt, with no
memory of the superhuman feats they have just performed.
The Sanghyang Dedari,
or angel trance, is performed by two tiny pre-pubescent
girls, who are chosen both for their beauty and for their
ability to open themselves to the descent of the gods in
trance. After weeks of training to develop their ability to
enter this holy state, they are called upon to act as
channels for the deities to cleanse their village of evil.
As the ritual begins, the girls are dressed as angels,
decorated with silk and gold and flowers. Because they are
seen as too pure to touch the earth, they are carried around
the village on elaborate litters or on the shoulders of
worshippers, swaying and dancing with acrobatic grace. They
are then brought to the temple, where they dance together in
a perfect matched rhythm, even though their eyes are tightly
closed. Their delicate movements are accompanied by the
sound of a gamelan orchestra and a priest chanting
blessings that are carried up to heaven on the perfumed
smoke of holy incense.
The most famous and fearsome
of all Balinese dances is the Calonarang, often
called the Barong and Rangda or sometimes simply the Barong
Dance by tour brochures. This performance tells the
story of the evil queen Mahendratta, who was banished by her
husband to the forest after she was found to be practicing
black magic. When it came time for the queen’s daughter to
marry, no one was willing to wed her, despite her
breathtaking beauty, so scared they were of her mother’s
dark powers. Furious with anger at seeing her daughter
rejected, the queen transformed herself into the hideous
witch Randga, completed with a tongue of fire and hair of
flames, and rained plagues and pestilence down upon the
land. The Calonarang dance tells the story of Rangda’s
battle with the Barong, the legendary lion-like beast who
protects the villagers from Rangda’s wrath.
Calonarang performances vary
from village to village, and the dances staged especially
for tourists are noticeably shorter. The traditional version
of the dance, generally performed to accompany a major
temple ceremony and frequently held in the dead of the
night, begins with the princess’s servant crying because
no one is willing to wed her mistress. The witch then takes
the stage to instruct her servants to carry out her rampage
of destruction. The performance next shifts to the village,
which Rangda has turned into a scene of devastation, with
people dying in droves from painful illnesses. Several men
guard the graveyard, only to be surprised by a she-demon
who, calling out suggestive remarks, tries to lure them from
their duty. Finally, desperate to escape Rangda’s evil,
the villagers appeal to the king for help. The king’s
priest suggests that his disciple Bahulu marry the princess
in order to discover the secret of the evil queen’s magic.
Bahulu finds out that Rangda uses a holy book, which she
reads upside down, and he steals it to give to the priest.
Armed with this powerful weapon, the priest battles Rangda
in a series of dramatic scenes. The Barong now enters the
story, accompanied by his group of human followers. In this
most famous segment of the Calonarang, Rangda uses her magic
to send the Barong’s army into trance, causing them to
turn their sharp keris daggers on themselves. But the
Barong protects them from harm, and Rangda is finally pushed
back to the graveyard.
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