Dancing is a ritual in the life of Balinese

Dancing is a ritual in the life of Balinese

SANUR, Bali (JP): Wayan is no more than 10 years old, but she knows well how to make up her innocent face. Sitting before a sorry-looking mirror, she carefully applies the foundation, powder, eye shadow, rouge and red lipstick.

Wayan is not alone. Two other girls and four teenagers are also busy with their make-up and costumes in a nine-square-meter room of the bale banjar (village meeting hall). There are no chairs and the floor is dirty, but it does not bother them. They sit on bamboo mats. An older woman helps them with the costumes and hairdos.

It is 5 p.m. and they are getting ready for their 6:30 p.m. show at the Puri Agung, a nearby temple in Batubulan village.

Wayan and Kadek, a younger girl, are the first to finish. They look much older in their heavy make-up and dance costumes made by Made Didir, the group coordinator. The girls put on their shabby t-shirts and leave their shorts in their backpacks. Like Wayan and Kadek, the other dancers also put on t-shirts or blouses to cover their bare shoulders before they go onstage.

The dancers are among the 110 members of the Banjar Sasih dance group. A banjar is a small village unit. There are 87 families in Banjar Sasih, or the Sasih neighborhood. Almost every family has one or more dancers. The youngest member of the Banjar Sasih dance group is seven years old and the oldest is over 60 years old.

"I am not the only one in my family in the group. My two daughters are also dancers," Dewa Made Oka, 44, told The Jakarta Post.

Putu Suwardani, a junior high school teacher, and her husband, a ticketing officer at the Batubulan Bus Terminal, are both members of the dance group.

The group performs three traditional dances: Kecak, Sanghyang Dedari and Sanghyang Jaran. The main dance is the Kecak. It is an adaption of the famous Ramayana ballet, but it is accompanied by a choir of more than 40 bare-chested men. The Sanghyang Dedari is a ritual dance performed by two girls in a trance. In the Sanghyang Jaran dance, an entranced man dances around a bonfire made from coconut shells.

Not all of them are full-timers. Those who play the main characters in the Ramayana ballet or the entranced girls perform only twice or three times a week. They don't perform every day to give others a chance to play the important roles.

That day, about 80 members of the dance group performed onstage at Puri Agung. They left at 6 p.m. in an open truck and on several motorcycles. It took them only 15 minutes to get there. As soon as they got there, they busied themselves preparing for the performance.

Ludhe, the leading dancer who plays Sita, took off her blue blouse and opened her old biscuit can where she keeps her accessories. She tightened her golden paper bracelets with a rubber string to make sure that they would not come loose.

At 6:30 p.m. sharp, the bare-chested men came onstage and started the magic cak, cak, cak sounds to the amazement of the spectators.

Once on stage, the dancers become different people. They are not Wayan, Ketut, Made or Putu. They are professional artists who inspire awe in their audience with their beautiful movements and unique choral chanting. Everyone was nailed to their seats until the one-hour show was over.

In the morning, the dancers return to their "normal" lives and jobs. In fact, most members of the Banjar Sasih dance group are also farmers, carpenters, handicraftsmen/women, students or workers.

"From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. I work in the rice fields and then I work as a carpenter until 3 p.m.," Made said.

Although dancing is part of their existence as Hindu Balinese, the villagers perform for a fee. Most Balinese don't dance for commercial purposes. They dance for solidarity to strengthen the relationship among community members. The business circle is fully aware of the stance and uses this as a means to lower the dancers' fees. Dancers earn very little. Each group member from Batubulan, for example, earns between Rp 20,000 (US$8.70) and Rp 40,000 a month, depending on the number of spectators.

The Puri Agung hall is able to accommodate 300 people. Between 150 and 200 people come to see the show nightly during the peak season. In low seasons, there are only between 50 and 60 guests, according to Putu Birawa, the stage manager.

"But there are times when only very few guests come. One night during the Gulf War, we danced before a German family. They were the only guests we had," Putu said.

He said part of the money collected from the show is set aside for the neighborhood's petty cash fund before it is equally distributed among the dancers.

"Of course we want to earn more money," Putu said.

He complained about the lack of appreciation for traditional dance.

"Once in a while, we perform at a star-rated hotel. They pay us up to Rp 500,000 ($217) for one show. We have to share it with some 100 people. But they pay more for a modern music group of three people," Putu said. (sim)