Tropical Storm Tour: Bali Part 30
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
A rusty flyer in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Pendet dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Topeng Tua dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
At 6:00 pm, I headed back over to Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod to see if I could enter early. Instead, the ticket guy let me reserve a seat again, which was nice. To kill an hour–or maybe give birth to one, depending on how you look at it–I walked a block over to Frozen Yogi, where I paid a hefty 39,000 rupiah ($2.74) for a half cup of frozen yogurt with strawberry slices sprinkled on top. At least they had a comfy couch out front where I could relax for a while and type up my journal entries.
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Legong Lasem dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Barong Waksira dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
When the show started, I noticed that literally half of the gamelan orchestra was absent–including all of the trompong players. Needless to say, the overall sound was quite thin. Seeing as how half of the music was missing, they should have refunded half of our money. First up was the usual lovely Pendet welcome dance, in which the prettiest girls of the banjar tossed offerings in the form of flowers to both Gods and all of us mere mortal visitors. Second up came the Topeng Tua, a necessarily tepid mask dance that mimics the creaky movements of an old codger. Luckily, a pretty good performance of the Legong Lasem followed, despite a lackluster bird of ill omen sequence that needed more practice on the part of the bird. She didn’t forget any movements; they just looked too “relaxed.”
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Barong Waksira dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sanggar Suwara Guna Kanti performs the Barong Waksira dance at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Closing out the show was a performance of Barong Waksira. another classic tale from the Ramayana, the Hindu epic. At the end of the kris (dagger) segment, one of the guys who was battling Rangda started to “stab” himself again, even though his friends were already exiting the stage, which seemed like a mistake. While this was overall not exactly the best gamelan / dance performance I’ve ever witnessed in Ubud, at least the audience was well behaved, as I heard nary a peep out of anyone the whole time.
Words and photos ©2015 Arcane Candy.
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