We woke up early in the morning, got ready all of our backpacks and luggage as we would check out from the CT1 Bed & Breakfast Hotel and start our full day tour.
Resen picked us up at 8.00am, and we headed to Kesiman village for the Barong & Kris Dance being our first itinerary of the day.
The Barong and Kris dance is one of the Bali most iconic dance-dramas, on par with the Legong and Kecak. The Kecak Dance we watched the day before made us more keen and looking forward to the the performance.
We were there on just in time, before 9.30am and we bought the tickets Adult Rp.100,000 and Child Rp.50,000. Pamphlets containing synopses handed out at the ticket booths prior to the start of the show. Otherwise, it can be difficult to follow the story as the scenes unfold, due to the lack of narration.
After we got our tickets, Resen brought us around to the area as beside the performance hall is the village temple. Later on we learned that the shows is managed locally; dances performed by villagers, and live gamelan orchestra accompanies the full length of the show.
We managed to find a place just in front of the stage. Unlike the Kecak using the men's’ chanting as the music background, Barong using vibrant gamelan overtures begin as the audience is seated.
The Barong dance represent on eternal fight between good and evil spirit. Barong (a mythological animal) represent a good spirit and Rangda (a mythological monster) represent an evil one.
The Barong, a benevolent spirit in beast form must protect a kingdom against the vengeful wrath of the widow and witch queen, Rangda. Two male dancers work out the movements of the heavily ornate Barong costume, much in resemblance of the Chinese lion dance, while supporting dancers portray monkeys, priests and village men.
Below is the synopses which was given to us:
THE DANCES START WITH MUSIC OVERTONE ~ Followed by his friend, the monkey, the tiger comes up. Three masked dancers appear representing Meri, making palm wine in the forest whose child is killed by the tiger. the three men get angry and attack the tiger which is helped by the monkey. During the fight the nose of one of the three men was bitten off.
FIRST ACT ~ Two girls (dancers) appear representing the servant of the Rangda. They looking for the severities of Dewi Kunti who are on the way to meet their Patih.
SECOND ACT ~ Dewi Kunti followers arrived. One of the followers of Rangda transfigured into a demon (a kind of Rangda ) and enter a demon spirit to Dewi Kunti’s followers, which make them angry .
THIRD ACT ~ Dewi Kunti and her son; Sahadewa emerged. Dewi Kunti has promised to Rangda to hand over Sahadewa as a victim . Dewi Kunti actually not want to sacrifice his son Sahadewa to the Rangda, but devil (a kind of Rangda ) insert an evil spirit that caused her to become angry and willingly to sacrifice his son. With the assistance of Patih, she exiles Sahadewa into the jungle. Patih is also being inserted an evil spirit by the devil which make Patih with no humanity herd Sahadewa into the jungle and tied him in-front of Rangda’s palace.
FOURTH ACT ~ Come down Dewa Siwa and give immortal life to Sahadewa. This incident is not known by Rangda . Then came Rangda to tearing and killing Sahadewa but he can not be killed because of immunity bestowed by Dewa Siwa . Rangda surrender to Sahadewa and begged to be saved so that he could go to heaven . The demand is met by Sahadewa and then Rangda got heaven .
FIFTH ACT ~ When one of the Rangda’s followers (Kalika) facing Sahadewa to ask for forgiveness, it was rejected by Sahadewa. This rejection cause fights and Kalika transfigured into a “wild boar” and in the struggle between Sahadewa and the wild boar, Sahadewa gets victory. Then Kalika (wild boar) is turned into a “bird”. Kalika remains defeated.
And finally Kalika (bird) transfigured into “Rangda”. Because of his magic, Rangda cannot be killed by Sahadewa and eventually Sahadewa transfigured into a “Barong”. Since they have the same magical strength then the fight between Barong against Rangda is no winning this fight and thus lasts forever. Then came the Barong’s followers, each with a Keris to help barong in the fight against Rangda.
The climactic scene has the palace guards in trance, turning on themselves by screaming and stabbing their chests fiercely with their Kris daggers, but without harm due to the black magic. Barong comes to the rescue, lifting the spell off all those inflicted, and a priest comes around sprinkling holy water to fully revive the kingdom as the famine subsides, and Rangda is defeated.
The shows last between 45 minutes and an hour, and the end of the show features photo taking onstage with the performing cast in their full costumes, as well as with the gamelan orchestra.
Initially we had much enthusiastic for the show, but may be it was due to story line is too long, and a little bit confusing of the characters appeared on the stage and trying to figure out who is who. In the end, we found it a bit boring through out the show.
Both kids were feeling sleepy in the end of the show. I guess the hot weather contributed to this too! And, what they were waiting in the end was eagerly to have photo and touch the Barong costume!
One of the gamelan musicians invited us to the back stage where they kept all the costumes and masks used in the dance. We had a chance to put on them and have a few photos taken together. Daddy did give the musician some tips for that.
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