Limbak, Rina: Two generations of 'kecak' dancers

Limbak, Rina: Two generations of 'kecak' dancers

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Ubud, Bali

Two great apes confront each other in the treetops, each
fighting for a share of a kingdom. The apes bare the fierceness
of their fangs, and their barks and snarls pierce the quietude of
the forest.

In a flurry of hands, one of the apes falls dead to the
ground, and the forest explodes into a cacophony of chak-chak-
chak!

No, it was not an episode of Planet of the Apes, but a chapter
from the great epic Ramayana being played out in the
psychologically powerful kecak dance of Bali.

Circle upon circle of bare-chested men, arms splayed out,
chanting "chak-chak-chak", create the illusion of a dense forest.
In the middle of this, two men fight out the age-old war between
Sugriwa-Subali, two ape kings from the epic.

Despite the distinct Balinese flavor, the kecak dance is
actually not a traditional dance of the island, but was created
by German artist Walter Spies in the 1930s.

"Walter liked young men," Spies's former student, I Wayan
Limbak, remarked with amusement. The 90-year-old Limbak is the
only remaining member of Spies' original kecak troupe, and
despite the toothless grin and weakened legs, Limbak can still
enthrall viewers with his dancing.

The kecak was inspired by the Balinese trance dance Sanghyang,
which served originally to scare away ghosts and bad spirits.
Spies removed the dance from its sacred setting, and added the
constant rhythmical "chak-chak-chak" to recreate Sanghyang's
spellbinding mystique.

Limbak was in his teenage years when Spies arrived in Bedaulu
village in Ubud and started his kecak creation.

"I was already dancing at Goa Gajah (at the time)," Limbak
said in Balinese, which was translated by noted art enthusiast
and the owner of the Agung Rai Museum of Arts (ARMA), Agung Rai.

Limbak said the final form of the kecak was the result of a
collaboration between Spies and village elders, with Spies
determining the theme of the dance and the timing.

As the kecak became popular, the modest Limbak got to perform
in front of international dignitaries in the former
Czechoslovakia, Germany and the Netherlands.

"It received such applause in Czechoslovakia in 1955 that the
tent where we danced fell down," Limbak recounted, adding that
his greatest achievement was performing in front of Indonesia's
founding father, Sukarno.

His main role in Spies' kecak was playing the part of
Kumbakarna, the brother of Sinta's kidnapper Rahwana in the
Ramayana.

A generation later, in the 1970s, famed Javanese dancer and
choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo came to Teges Kanginan village in
Ubud and took the kecak to new heights.

"When I saw a performance of the kecak dance in Bali for the
first time, it was clear the appearance of the palms and fingers
of the kecak were like an expression of ancient drawings on the
walls of caves.

"Similarly, the calls and sounds were an expression of
survival and primitiveness," Sardono wrote of the kecak in an
article published on the Internet.

A former pupil of Sardono's, I Ketut Rina, began his tutelage
at the ripe age of four.

"He (Sardono) was Javanese, and formidable with his bushy
black beard. Other children were afraid of him, but I was drawn
to him. To his dance," the 36-year-old Rina, a father of two,
said.

It was Rina who eventually inherited Sardono's legacy and
enriched it with his own creations. "I am his pupil, it is
difficult for me to move away from his (Sardono's) shadow," he
said, laughing.

Rina said the difference between Sardono's and the older
Spies' version was that Sardono's kecak was more dynamic, and
involved a lot more movements than just sitting around in a
circle.

"Sardono's kecak is more vibrant, it has more movements done
standing up than sitting down, and it uses (coconut) torches in
the performance," he said, adding that the storyline was made
more simple and reflected more on village life.

The new dance also has a lot more choreographed elements, and
the hypnotizing "chak-chak" sound was combined with the
nonsensical sounds of "chuk" and "thak".

To date, Rina has choreographed four kecak dances, with the
first being in 1992 with Perjalanan (Voyage), followed by
Kelahiran (Birth), Pembakaran Sinta (The Burning of Sinta) and
the latest, Ngeraga (Understanding Self), in 2000.

Dancing for Sardono brought Rina on a tour around Europe, and
now on his own he has worked in collaboration with artists from
around the world, including from France, Taiwan and Tokyo.

Rina said Sardono's way of teaching was for each child to
discover for himself the beauty of the dance. In this spirit too,
Rina established his own dance workshop, passing on his talent
and skill to the children of Teges Kanginan.

Some 40 people, most of them children, practice Balinese
traditional dances and the gamelan at his workshop and home. When
The Jakarta Post visited him last week there was also a young
French woman practicing there.

"The workshop is dedicated to learning traditional Balinese
arts, and anybody can learn," Rina said.