Topeng Tua Dance Performance at Ubud Royal Palace, Bali

Topeng Tua Dance is part of a group of mask dance-dramas in Bali named Topeng, which literally means "to close or press against the face"(in reference to the use of a mask, of course). Covarrubias depicts these dances as "masked actors playing local historical plays (babad); mostly pantomime, but with dialogue by the comic characters"(1) 


According to I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger "Topeng is done for Odalan (temple festivals) and a myriad of other rituals. In a traditional performance, five men play all the roles (called Topeng Panca, meaning "five dancers") simply by changing masks and headdresses. The drama begins with the panglembar or introductory characters who pave the way for the entrance of the king. The dancer show off his virtuosity through pure dance movements. The three most popular masks are Topeng Keras, a strong primer minister character with red or brown face denoting strength and courage; Topeng Keras Bues, strong yet goofy with bulbous eyes and large, humorous movements; and the beloved Topeng Tua, an old man who remembers his youth. He stumbles, wipes the sweat off his brow, breathes heavily with exertion and blows his nose"(2) It is a long ritual dance-drama festivity where these three characters, the king and clowns interact with the people in a rather comic way.


That evening at Ubud Royal Palace's stage, in July 2009, I only had the opportunity to see the Topeng Tua Dance, the dance of the old men remembering his youth, a short choreography (6 minutes) among the 9 other dance performances, so it was only a small bite of the Topeng dances. From my point of view it wasn't the best choreography of that night, especially after have seen the Legong Kraton and the Baris Tunggal dances, but it kept my attention very well and I enjoyed it.

Slideshow: Topeng Tua Dance Performance at Ubdu Royal Palace, Bali. July, 2009

You will see in the video I recorded how the old character, Topen Tua, as they said (I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger) "stumbles, wipes the sweat of his brow, breathes heavily with exertion and blows his nose", but also how he picks up a head lice from his white long hair, kills it with his finger nails and then shakes it off his fingers only to come back to his hair and pick another one. I have no information about weather this was a change of the original dance or simply our writers didn't want to embarrass anyone mentioning it as a part of the choreography. I can remember the same kind of actions missing in narrations of Chinese Theatre by Chinese writers in reference to spitting. 

What it is remarkable in the technique of this dance is the continuous use of codified movements and series of physical actions with a minimum of improvisation, what it seems to be one of the secrets of its every night success.

Video: Topeng Tua Dance Performance at Ubud Royal Palace, Bali. July, 2009.

You can find many videos of the other Topeng dances in Youtube.

Atribución-Licenciamiento Recíproco

(1) Island of Bali. By Miguel Covarrubias.

(2) Balinese Dance, Drama and Music. By I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger.

    

Oleg Tambulilingan, A Dance Performance At Ubud Royal Palace, Bali.

Oleg Tambulilingan Dance Performace. Ubud, Bali. 2009.

Oleg Tangulilingan, or Bumblebee Dance, is a dance that belongs to a style named Kebyar (Taruna Jaya, the dance I talked about in my previous post, is a Kebyar dance as well). Kebyar dances are characterized by abrupt movements, radical changes in tempo and the requirement of a great ability of expression and energy in the dancer. The Kebyar style emerged in the twentieth century, during and after the golden age of the 1920’s in Bali, when the island became an international spot and foreigner visitors had a decisive influence which resulted in an explosion of creativity among Balinese performing artists .

Ole Tambulilingan was created and choreographed by I Ketut Mario (whom I have mentioned in other posts about Bali (1)), considered one of the pillars of twentieth-century Balinese dance.

Mario dancing Kebyar Duduk (1930's)

According to I Wayan Tibia and Rucina Ballinger (2), Mario created this dance for two young dancers (and later masters) from Peliatan village, I Gusti Raka and I Wayan Rasmin Sampih, when their company was preparing a tour to Europe and the United States in 1952.

Oleg Tambulilingan is a recreation of the bumblebees’s seduction dance. from their entrance to a garden until their final embrace. Within the conventions of Balinese dance the choreography broke with certain established rules, for example, when the woman dancer (it is a male-female couple dance) as a bumblebee “raises her wings” she does it by raising her arms over the shoulders showing her underarms, and no one before had done it.

I’m publishing here a group of photographs (where you can observe very well those dancers’ postures and gestures of hands and eyes), and a video (3 minutes), all from the performance I saw at Ubud Royal Palace in July, 2009.

As a spectator I had a great visual and aesthetic pleasure, both from the the dance and from the music, but that ritual-like feeling I was almost used to when watching performances in Bali wasn’t present; the Kebyar style, in the end, are dances, which recreate parts of Balinese life, through great technical skills and only for the appreciation of the artist.

Slideshow of Oleg Tambililingan Dance performance. Ubud, 2009.

Video of Oleg Tambulilingan Dance in Ubud, Bali. 2009.

(1) A special post dedicated to this Balinese master is coming soon..

(2) Balinese Dance, Drama and Music. A Guide to the performing Arts of Bali. I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger. Periplus Editions. Singapore, 2004.

Taruna Jaya Dance Performance at Ubud Royal Palace, Bali.

Taruna Jaya dance (Ubud, Bali. July, 2009)

"Taruna Jaya (The energy of youth). I Gede Manik was a student of Pan Wandres and in 1952 (1) he choreographed Taruna Jaya ("Victorius youth") out of Kebyar Legong. At that time, it was danced by two women, but today it is usually done as a solo. This dance requires immense energy for the numerous changes in speed, dynamics and mood that the dancer must capture.

"Taruna jaya describes many moods of a youth: coyness, bashfulness, irritability, sweetness, and of course, energy. Strong eye movements are a prominent feature, and often include nelik (a wide eyed stare). At one point, the dancer flings her extended kain to the side and sidles up to the drummer to flirt with him. He may either resist her advances or play along. The costume (usually dark purple) uses a headcloth with a unique shape, a log-sleeved tunic and a kain pleated on the left side with the end dangling. There are many moments when the dancer picks up the end of the cloth to emphasize a musical point or mood. She also uses a fan to its greatest advantage."(2)

The version I saw at the Ubud Royal Palace (last July 2009) is practically the same that Balinese usually see in their village religious events.

It was impossible to record more than a few seconds of video and only the photographs can show what it has been described before. I added two more videos (from Youtube), a solo and a two-women version, to give a wider appreciation of this dance.

Slideshow of Taruna Jaya Dance Performance. Ubud.

Video (very short) of Taruna Jaya Performance at Ubud Royal Palace (July, 2009).

Taruna Jaya dance, a solo.

Playlist of videos (2) of Taruna Jaya dance. Version for two dancers

(1) That's why I don't mention Miguel Covarrubias in this post. This dance wasn't born yet. Covarrubias' last travel to Bali was in 1932.

(2) "Balinese Dance, Drama and Music. A Guide to the Performing Arts of Bali" by I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger. Page 90.

Legong Dance. Documents from 1930's and a modern performance in Ubud, Bali.

"As the archetype of the delicate and feminine, the legong is the finest of Balinese dances. Connoisseurs discuss the comparative excellence of various legongs as intensely as we discuss our dancers, and I have heard solemn arguments among princes as to wether the group of Bedulu was finer than that of Saba, or the school of Sukawati superior to that of Badung"

Miguel Covarrubias.(1)

Learning Legong. Photo by Rose Covarrubias.(1930)

No doubt, legong is the most famous of all Balinese dances. Although not the most spectacular or dramatic, it is the most beautiful and most prominent for the fineness of its movements and has become the representative image of Bali and its performing arts: the image of the little beautiful graceful dancer wearing a dramatic headdress, her body twisting and seemingly about to fall, while her gaze is turned sideways and her hands' fingers making movements impossible to imitate.

Balinese historians already identify it as a recognizable style since 1811. According to some mythical Balinese stories legong dance was born as a prototype of dance and music, that is, it was with it that these arts were created. (2)

When Covarrubias visited Bali in the 1930's, legong had already quite established itself as the first Balinese dance, and our Mexican explorer never failed to express his wonder about what he saw in it; he explores, moreover, its origin, and also tells us that the structure and movements of legong may originate in shadow theater, the Wayang kulit, as an attempt by humans to imitate the way stories were told with puppets in shadows (3). If this theory were true then Balinese dance would have the same origin than Chinese traditional theater or Chinese opera (4).

Covarrubias does a descriptive study of the costume and headdress of legong dancers, plus a full plate of the basic positions of the choreography.

Illustraded notes about the costume and headdress of the legong dancer in M. Covarrubias's diary. (5)

Plate with illustrations of body postures in legong dance. M. Covarrubias. (6)

Some of the most beautiful paintings by Covarrubias were inspired on legong dance; the beauty of the figure of the dancer was more than fascinating and he translated it into ink and watercolor (I can not say whether into oil as well).

Video: "Dressing the dancer", a painting by Miguel Covarrubias at ARMA Museum, Ubud.

"Legong Performance under Bayan Tree" painting by Miguel Covarrubias.

"Legong Dancer" watercolour by Miguel Covarrubias.

"Kneeling Legong Dancer with Headdress" watercolour by Miguel Covarrubias.

And, of course, Miguel also left us a filmed document of the dance itself in performance. The extract published here is part of an edition of early 2000, narrated in English with texts extracted from Covarrubias's book Island of Bali:

Miguel Covarrubias. Film Document about a legong performance at the village of Saba, Bali, 1932.

Rose Covarrubias, wife of the Mexican artist and a dancer herself, in turn devoted herself to photographically document the different types of legong dance and, thanks to her, we have dozens of photographs on the subject during that period (1930-1932). Here I show some which were published in Island of Bali. These photographs (and of course the film footage) are fantastic examples of how tradition keeps movements and postures almost intact during the years.

(Please, notice that you can click on each photograph and see it in a larger size.)

Legong dance photos, by Rose Covarrubias.

Finally, I share what I saw at the performance at Ubud Royal Palace in July 2009, Legong Kraton (or Keraton). The photographs are very interesting, showing some of the physical postures and various stills of eye and hand movements; I think they portray the strength of the projection of the dancers on stage. The video, however, is very short, I had problems with the camera and recorded only a few moments, but it's worth watching.

Slideshow of Legong Kraton dance performance at Ubud Royal Palace (Bali 2009)

Video: Legong Kraton dance at Ubud's royal palace (Bali, 2009)

(1) Island of Bali. Miguel Covarrubias.

(2) Balinese Dance, Drama and Music. A Guide to the Performing Arts of Bali. I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger.

(3) Island of Bali. Miguel Covarrubias. Page 228.

(4) See my post on Chinese funerary puppets and the origin of traditional Chinese theatre:

http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/2010/02/approaching-to-origin-of-chinese.html

(5) Covarrubias in Bali. Adriana Williams and Yu-Chee Chong. EDM, Singapore. Pages 130, 131.

(6) Island of Bali. Miguel Covarrubias. Illustration.

Gabor Dance Performance at Ubud Royal Palace, Bali.

A presentation dance, a welcoming dance, an offering dance... All of this can be a Balinese Gabor Dance.

Covarrubias didn't mention it in his book Island of Bali, and it seems that the dance was added to commercial performances, festivities and rituals after Covarrubias' presence in the island. Today it is usually performed by 6 young women at the beginning of any spectacle of Balinese dances for tourists (as it was my case the 20th of July 2009 at Ubud Royal Palace Stage), and it is continually used as a offering ritual dance in temples festivities.

The performance at Ubud Royal Palace Stage, presented by Sadha Budaya Troupe, had 9 different dances, with Legong as main dance (that night the production was named "Legong Dance"), and the Gabor dance was the first performed.

You should be aware that Balinese Dance's hands and eyes movement and postures you will see in the next photographs and videos don't "speak a language", as a Balinese writer says:

"Balinese hand gestures movements are not storytelling movements as in East Indian dance; rather they embellish the expression of the body." (1)

Hand gestures also can emphasize emotions, and postures of the body come from basic aesthetic principles of body movement and work for increasing its image projection on the stage. In this sense, Balinese dance is similar to our Ballet, with the exception that Balinese Performing Arts are almost always linked to religious ceremonies.

What is important is the special quality of the performer which can transport the audience to a different sphere, the Balinese term known as taksu or spiritual charisma. We'll keep talking about these topics and more, especially with our post of Legong Dance and the postures Covarrubias drew about its choreographies. (2)

Slideshow of Gabor Dance Performance at Ubud Royal Palace (2009)

This is what the program said about our first dance:

"Gabor / Welcome Dance

Panyembrahma is the presentation of an offering in the form of a ritual dance. The dance symbolizes the joyful reception of the Gods who attend a temple festival. Recently, Panyembrahma has been used to open the Legong Dance. It is performed by a group of young girls making identical movements. Toward the end of the dance the dancers make praying gestures and throw flowers to the audience as a welcome and a blessing."

It is a 10-minute choreography, so you can enjoy the video in one sitting in front of the screen.

Gabor dance performance at Ubud Royal Place (2009)

(1) Wayang Dibia and Rucina Ballinger. Balinese Dance, Drama and Music. Periplus Editions. Singapore, 2004.

(2) Miguel Covarrubias. Island of Bali. Periplus Classics. Periplus Editions. Singapore, 2007.