Trance performance in contemporary Bali includes Sutri, female fire dance; Onying, male kris, sword dance; and Sanghyang, spirit dance. These dances are derived from ancient, animistic practices. The Sutri, Onying and Sanghyang are called ritual trance dances because the performance’s movements, gestures and choreography are highly stylistic. The observers also receive divine guidance or direction while the dancer is in trance. In addition to the actual dances are the performers: balian, healers who are human channels of spirits, and sadeg, shaman. Healers’ and shamans’ performances function as moderators or bridges between this world and the spiritual realm. They access information from the invisible-upper-world and then transmit it for the community through traditional speech and diction. These practices are believed to be the origins of the current shadow-puppet theatre. Although these forms have been transformed into a number of fire and kris sword dances for commercial tourist purposes, the authentic forms still survive in some villages on the island.
Of about 20 extant types of trance dance in Bali, Sanghyang dedari, Sanghyang jaran, Sutri and other lesser-known Sanghyang variations are thought to be the oldest surviving forms of ceremonial dance. Their origins pre-date the Balinese/Hindu tradition into which it was absorbed. They still exist today only in one or two mountain villages in the north of Bali and one or two in the east of the island and are rarely performed, except when disease or disaster strikes a community and a ceremony is required. These trance ceremonies have been studied a little in the past, particularly by Margaret Mead and other anthropologists in the 1930s, but not described and analysed from a performance perspective. Some of the guidebooks and introductory books to the Balinese culture wrongly imply they are easy to witness and often performed; in fact, they are increasingly rare and near extinction.
Within the ceremony is exquisite choral singing and the elaborate invocation of trance in two (sometimes more) pre-pubescent females. Once intrance, a synchronised dance takes place, with the eyes of the dancers always closed. The dance often involves extraordinary feats of balance, courage and dancing through fire. The techniques used will be described in detail and, it is argued, these same techniques might be transposed for use in other acting/performance traditions and training, including Western acting. This chapter presents a specific case study from a small village in the north of Bali and explores the tourist, non-sacred and largely faked versions of trance that have sprung up in recent years together with a discussion as to how they affect the purer versions.
Sanghyang is a spirit and when it enters and animates a dancer’s body, the Balinese call it Sanghyang dance, tari sanghyang. The personal name and identity of the dancer is ignored or temporarily suspended until the ceremony is over; an external spirit is manipulating that person, using the dancer as a ‘mask’, a ‘puppet’ or a ‘dance vehicle’.
Identified by the specific spirit that descends, possesses, employs and manipulates the dancer’s body, about 20 different Sanghyang exist. Simply add the name of the specified spirit to Sanghyang as the modifier: when the spirit of a jaran (horse) enters the body, the dancer behaves like a horse and people would call the dance Sanghyang jaran, the spirit of a horse. Similarly, when the spirit of a celestial nymph, dedari, enters and animates the body, the dancer acts like a female nymph that is called Sanghyang dedari, the celestial nymph sanghyang. Jane Belo’s survey in Trance in Bali (Belo, 1960: 202) reports several other variant names of Sanghyang, such as lelipi (snake), celeng (pig), kuluk (puppy), bojog (monkey), sampat (broom), jaran gading (yellow shiny horse), jaran putih (white horse), dongkang (toad/frog), penyu (turtle) and sembe (lantern), etc. Some of these forms employ particular sacred masks and a wide degree of varieties and sophistication of costume that represent and indicate the type of descending spirit in their performance, but many are simply dressed and without masks. The form involves animate and inanimate objects of possession: a lantern or a human being can be the central focus of possession during the ceremony. The inanimate object is believed to be able to move in some way without assistance when the spirit descends into it. According to the elderly leader of Sanghyang in the hamlet of Duda, in the village of Jungu, in the eastern region of Karangasem, the ritual of Sanghyang began as a response to spirits invading the village. Objects and animals materialised at night inside and outside villagers’ houses. The effects of the spirits’ presence manifested in
illness or disease of the crops. Each form of Sanghyang was devised as a way to pacify the spirits by inviting them to come down and dance with the villagers and be happy. The idea was that they would then go away satisfied and leave the villagers alone at other times. Jungu is the only village in Bali where so many Sanghyang forms still exist, but they are rarely performed these days. The most likely time is during the rainy season close to the lunar New Year, but if any rain actually falls the ceremony is cancelled; for reasons no longer known, the performer must not come into any contact with water, even rain. This almost guarantees that Sanghyang very rarely takes place. Each type of performance often has further sub-categories. For example, the existing masked Sanghyang trance dance at Ketewel village consists of nine refined female characters, such as the celestial nymphs Took, Kentrut, Gudita, Gagar Mayang, Menaka, Sulasih, Tunjung Beru, Nilotama and Supraba. Each distinctive mask receives the name of the respective spirit – the mask is believed to be the vehicle each for of these legendary, celestial nymphs.
From an anthropological point of view these events could be described as trance possession or purification ceremonies; seen from the performance or acting perspective, Sanghyang is an animation, in which the animator is invisible. This is not because the animator is hiding backstage like a puppeteer, but because no one can see the person or from where or how the animation is controlled. The invisible animator could be employing string, leather, rods, a glove, a stick or other tools used by puppeteers, but the details remain unseen and unknown to the audience, except perhaps the priest. Given this, it can be argued that instead of a person training as an actor and then becoming a character, during Sanghyang a person becomes a puppet for a spirit to manipulate. The product as a performance is a form of acting, but unlike any acting described and practised by professionals. In fact, it is essential for the Sanghyang performer not be a professional or trained dancer as it is not their skill that will be demonstrated but that of the possessing spirit.
The process of acting/movement/dance in Sanghyang may be similar to Western acting traditions in a few ways: transmission of inner emotional feelings to outer, visible limbs and gestures. However, the Sanghyang animation from inside the dancer’s body is without any connection to personalised sense memory or emotional recall. In fact, the dancer/performer does not remember anything at all about the event when the trance is over. Similarly, although an outside observer might focus on the aesthetics and techniques, the Balinese audience is only concerned with the spiritual affect it has. During a performance, the Balinese witness is there for religious purposes and not as an audience in the Western sense of the word. Several other myths surround the origin of Sanghyang, according to local phenomena and faith. Performer and teacher I Made Sidja gives one of the most seemingly rational among these; it is based on some anecdotal,
orally transmitted data, but not documented history and goes something like as follows: Desa–kala–patra (time–space–circumstance) affect Balinese life deeply and throughout Balinese thought and existence a strong awareness of these exists; much literature explicitly recognises the power of these combined forces on everyday life. Just before winter, in the transition between the fifth and sixth moon/month of the Balinese lunar calendar, when the flow of hot wind from the south is competing with the flow of cold wind from the north, the Balinese annually suffer several illnesses: stomach ache, chicken pox, vomiting, diarrhoea, asthma and epidemics that cause sickness and some deaths. To drive out epidemics, people would gather together around holy temples bringing with them various magic items that were thought to protect them: ‘cheerful leaves’ (don girang) and rags of weaved coconut leaves and white lime in the form of a plus (+) sign to represent a mystical bird foot print, tampak dara. However, the most important of their activities was the creation of loud noise, nobleg, to banish the fear of death and disease that haunted and overwhelmed entire villages. As people originally did not possess any metal musical instrument, they sang songs or banged on objects as an attempt to expel the sickness and drive the evil spirits away. Rice farmers who may have come from their farm may have joined this nobleg by beating on their farming tools.
In the climax of the season, as the illnesses increasingly took more casualties, during the evening people would make even louder sounds with wooden bells, kulkul, make loud percussive sounds, keplugan, and other frightening noises using bamboo, wood and other materials. Making noise with these objects is a way to obtain power or feel more powerful in the face of danger; people would walk to places they feared, cemeteries, rivers, jungles and dark roads. The aim was to purge the villagers’ fear by visiting, taming and familiarising themselves with the feared places and images. The gathering at a temple by a community in a state of high tension, near hysteria, heightened by the percussive sounds and fear, led to deep prayer and occasional natural trance. In that state of trance, villagers would naturally refer to supposed methods of defence against evil. Typically, according to earlier customs, they might ask for fire with which to bathe their bodies by brushing themselves with torches as a form of protection and purification. Occasionally, they may mention (among others) names of common spirits. When referring to powerful horse spirits, for example, they might name specifically Sukanta, Senia Sakti, Walaka, Abra Puspa, Oncersrawa, Purnama Sada or Turanggana. Each is a known horse spirit that is thought to be a vehicle of a specific demi-god. When they mentioned sarwa sari, bunch of flowers, they refer to Sanghyang dedari – this is the Sanghyang of celestial nymphs that is related in tradition to those specific flowers. Villagers would perceive that the choreography and vocabulary of movements used by those in trance were improvisational. In time, the performances developed common patterns and each Sanghyang performance/ceremony today generally observes a certain structure, from the opening through to the climax, and uses a specific recurring vocabulary of movements and choreography that reflect the character or type of a given spirit: strong, soft, coarse, gentle, subtle, masculine, feminine, robust or calm would define the spirit profile well.
Sanghyang came into being with its own significant exorcism function, underlying myth, movement, choreography, costumes and associated objects, accompanied by vocal music through a number of ritual procedures. The move from animistic ritual to entertainment through a form of dance began with Sanghyang; it began to be performed for every temple anniversary, even without trance. A communal group from one village would commonly invite Sanghyang performers from another village and in this way non-sacred performance began to emerge. As Sanghyang dedari developed over generations, it produced a number of offshoots that became performances in their own right, divorced from the original ritual functions.
The ceremony was eventually accompanied by Sanghyang legong, the central female dance section of the ritual, from which the current classical Legong dance was developed. Similarly, the performances were adapted and developed into a number of classical music and dance forms accompanied by classical music. Examples of this are Telek (a dance using refined masks), Legong Jobog, Lasem, Kuntul and Tunjang. Metallophone musical ensembles, known as Gamelan Palegongan also developed to accompany the performances. Therefore this is a likely journey from basic, instinctive protective rituals to aesthetically focused secular dance performance and the surviving Sanghyang ceremonies are a remnant of the distant, animist past. Today, they are therefore a fascinating window to that past and are important for understanding where many contemporary forms have originated. In Bali, the past and present can often sit comfortably side by side. A typical performance of Sanghyang – any type of Sanghyang trance including Sutri – may chronologically be divided into four phases: prepreparation, preliminary ceremony, main dancing section and the final, restoring conclusion. The following explains each stage in greater detail for all types of Sanghyang; later in this chapter a specific performance of one form, Sanghyang deling, is looked at in detail specific to that form. Several terms refer to the initiation of the performance, such as worshipping, penyungsungan; fanning of incense smoke onto a dancer, panudusan; invoking, nedunang; reporting, matur piuning; and waking up, nangiang. These terms suggest that the restless spirits are either wandering around of flying in the sky, or sleeping in their dwelling–distant–sacred place. People need to call, worship, invite or request the spirits to wake up and to descend, to dance and to celebrate in a rendezvous between spirit and villagers/worshippers who seek spiritual guidance, solace, protection, continuing security and increasing prosperity. At this starting ritual stage (second phase), more than a dozen female chorus members sing the Kidung Wargasari song in unison to invoke the blessing of the gods and goddesses. In order to understand the underlying idea of the commencing phase, the first typical stanza of the chorus is transcribed in translation as follows:
Ida ratu saking luhur Honourable spirits from the upper sacred
world
Kaula nunas lugrane We request your blessing
Mangda sampun tityang To release us from ignorance
tandruh
Mengayat betara sami In worshiping all protecting spirits
Tityang ngaturang pejati We give you these offerings of
Canang suci lan daksina Pure flowers and these other symbols of
the worldly life
Sami sampun puput We have now completed
Pratingkahing saji The arrangement of our offerings
The second song is Kidung pangasti, sung to show adoration and worship of the spirit. The third song is Kidung hyang dedara, sung to accompany the incense smoke-fanning activity, when smoke is blown onto the dancers faces. At this stage, the dancers, while closing their eyes and kneeling, immerse their faces in the smoke of burning incense or fragrant sandalwood. The Kukus Harum, ‘Fragrant Smoke’, song is eventually sung to motivate and lead the dancers into trance, to put them into an altered state of consciousness. It is important to note that to the Balinese, even today, a state of trance is accepted naturally. In the West, on the contrary, trance is fascinating and is generally considered a rare and potentially harmful state. Psychologists refer to such self-induced trance alongside hypnotic trance and religious trance from meditation as dissociated states of consciousness. Perhaps the artist, during a height of creativity, slips into a similar state;
it may explain why artists do not remember how, after an act of creative intensity, they achieved what they did. A number of coconut skins are burned to begin the incense smoking ceremony, as legend has it that the spirits always descend via smoke. The following songs are sung when the dancers are bathed in the smoke in front of the shrine in order to invite the spirit down. Depending on the village, the song may be referred to as Gending panudusan, the smoking song or Panguntap, the invitation song.
Kembang Jenar Blooming Flower
Kembang Jenar mangundang This blooming flower invites the
great
Undang dedari agung Celestial nymphs
Sane becik becik dewa undang The fine ones are invited
Sang Supraba Tunjung Beru The angels Supraba and Tunjung
Beru
Tunjung beru mangrangsuk Together with the celestial nymph
busana
Penganggo anggo They don the special headdress
Pasaluke baju simping emas They are putting on their golden
shoulder decorations
Mesat miber ngagegana Flying quickly in the sky
Ngagegana mangelo ngelo In the shining sky, from the north
ngaja kanginan east
Ditu dedari matangguk jero Where the home of the nymphs lies
Tangane bek madaging sekar Their hands full of flowers
Ngagegana tekedang ratu Flying, they reach the great
kagunung agung mountain
Jalan dedari matangguk jero As a place for the nymphs to land
Kedapane malelepe On the lush young leaves
Malelepe tekedang ratu That spring from the great mountain
kagunung agung
Manuju munyin gamelan They head towards the gamelan with
the beautiful blended sounds of
Kempur sari candetan gender chimes and gongs
This song stops whenever the spirit is considered to have entered the dancer’s body, otherwise the singer repeats the song until the dancer collapses back over the lap of their assigned assistant or companion. There is often a degree of tension among the audience until this moment, as sometimes the trance does not occur and it is deemed that the spirits have decided not to descend and the ceremony is abandoned. The collapse is a clue that the spirit has descended and entered the dancer’s body.
As the companion lifts her body up from behind, the next song follows:
Mara Bangun Lifting Up
Mara-mara bangun Just waking up, their movement is
maonced-onceda (2 x) unbalanced
Nyuleleg nyulempoh, enjuhin I fan the smoke over them while
tityang roko (2 x) they still bend over
Eda kema jani mani puan Don’t leave now but tomorrow
kema (2 x)
Pangda pangda kado pang Work hard for us and stay here until
dini kasanja (2 x) late
Once the dancers enter trance, they are carried over men’s shoulders from the most inner temple into the dancing arena in the second temple courtyard, where they begin to dance, usually accompanied by about 30 male and 30 female chorus members.
Dewi ayu dewi suci Ida lunga Beautiful holy nymphs leisurely walk
mangulangun around
Mangungsi ke gunung sekar Heading to the mountain flowers
Tetamanan bagus dedara In the beautiful park of celestial
beings
Mangulati sekar tunjung They look for lotus flowers
Tunjung emas tunjung kuning Golden lotus, yellow lotus
Lelakon sami mangindang Walking is flying
Mangindang sisin telaga Flying over the pool
Mangindangi I capung emas Together with the golden
dragonflies
Mekadi kupu-kupu matarum And butterflies they dance
Metarum makepet mas dadua They dance with a pair of golden
fans
Manyaliog mauderan Sweeping around everywhere
Tetanjeke manolih-nolih Sometimes they perch and glance
around
Manolih juru kidunge Looking at the choir singers
Juru kidung sampun The chorus gathers closely together
madampyak and watches attentively
Karsan ida nunas lungsuran Expecting beautiful blessings
sekar
Picayang dewa picayang Please bless us
Icenin juru kidunge Please bless the chorus celestial
nymphs
The Sanghyang may step and dance upon burned coconut husks or shells. As the dancers are placed in the dancing arena, the melody player initiate the male chanting chorus. He begins with four beats of ostinatic musical composition.
This chanting music accompanies the dance until the dancers collapse, falling to the ground simultaneously. Each dancer’s assistant will come and lift the dancers as they collapse at the end of each composition. When the female chorus begins, they resume the dance, over and over, accompanied alternately by the male and then the female chorus. Since there no written story exists for the performance, its underlying plot, theme, characters and ideas can only be inferred from the song, Dewa Ayu, ‘Beautiful Angel’. The lyrics, looked at in more detail later in this chapter in relation to Sanghyang deling, for example, indicate specific types of movement appropriate to the spirit that is being summoned. A director or choreographer will immediately recognise the language of the detailed movement/mood suggestions. Other types of spirits have similar songs, with variations in the details. Then an eight-beat melodic syllable is produced over the interlocking musical chant. In contemporary Bali, this part has been expanded considerably, composed and re-composed and choreographed mainly for tourist entertainment. This type of performance is popularly known as the monkey
dance in reference to a fragment of the Ramayana entitled the ‘Abduction of Sita’ that it accompanies. The music and singing is thereby completely transformed out of the original context and adding the narrator provides occasional narration and dialogue. Since this secular version is now performed so frequently because of intense tourist demand, the costumes, dance movements and choreography of the traditional version have undergone a substantial transformation, with growing sophistication. However, the vocabulary and technical musical aspects mostly remain intact in traditional village performances. The leader of the chanting controls the musical dynamic in accordance with the dance cadences – the music follows the dancers. The leader controls the tempo by continually calling out loudly the syllable ‘pung’. The singer often initiates the song only to be followed by the chorus.
Sekar Mas Golden Flower
Sekar mas ngareronce A bunch of golden flowers
Sekaran mangigel gambuh The same as in the Gambuh dance
Gambuh di rejang kendran The female Gambuh dance in
Kendran
Tetabuhan ma-asih-asih The music is so sensual and moving
Kadi sunari anginan Just like a bamboo wind chime
Matanjek magulu wangsul Ringing alongside the movements of
the feet and neck
Ida arsa mangendon joged Sometimes She wants to watch the
Joged folk dance
Manyoged di pasar agung Sometimes She dances in the great
market
Sekar Sandat Sandat Flower
Sekar Sandat gagubahan We offer beautiful sandat flowers
Aturin widyadara Offerings for the celestial nymph
Ida arsa mangendon joged She wants to watch the Joged folk
dance
Manyoged di pasar agung To dance at the great market
Sampun janten sampun Surely She must be there
janten
Pangibing sami sampun The guests spread out ready to join
mangambyar the dance
Gegambelan lempung manis The gamelan music is sweet and soft
Nyuregseg raris nyalempoh Playing alongside the movements of
feet
Minggir, Minggir, Minggir, Stay further and further away
Minggir
Suling papat rebab dadua Listen to the four flutes and two
Rebab instruments
Sunari katiben angin Wind blows the wind chime
Cemarane sriat sriut The trees are swaying
The dance composition is not traditionally set up and choreographed but is spontaneously improvised. The dancers perform many of the movements in unison but sometimes they alternate and at times the dance becomes wild and the dancers seem oblivious of each other. The dancing emphasises swaying movements, ngelo, and repeated fan manipulation. In the climax, especially during Sutri and the horse Sanghyang, the dancers jump into the fire, stepping over it repeatedly and scattering burning embers. In the horse Sanghyang, the dancer even chews on some of the charcoal from the burnt incense.
The male Kecak chorus enhances the beauty of the performance with interlocking rhythms that work with the cadence of the dancers’ movements – chanting the sound syllable ‘chak’ on a certain melody, keeping time by calling out ‘pung’. Some say that the chorus members’ chanting is the soul of the performance. This is the male chorus that is transposed into the tourist performances and presented as traditional Balinese dance to the audience. In reality, the chorus was extracted from this trance tradition and re-choreographed with the Ramayana extract (mentioned earlier) in the late 1920s/early 1930s, probably by the German artist Walter Spies. The following song accompanies the dance in Sanghyang dedari.
Menuh gambir gadung melati Many flowers of menuh, gambir,
gadung and melati
Sandingin jempaka petak Complemented by white jempaka
flowers
Madampyak tumbuh di All grow on the mountain
Gunung
Tetanduran widya dari They are the flowers of the celestial
nymphs
Tempuh manis manyoyorin Fascinating, sweet and alluring
Dedarine ampuang aus Wind blows the angels
Maider mangalap sekar While picking up the flowers that are
around
Sekar emas gulu wangsul Golden flowers, using bird-like
movements of the neck
Sweca idewa neduning She deigns to descend
Sweca idewa ngigelin She deigns to dance
Gending guntang gula milir Over the bamboo music and the song
Gending guntang gula milir Over the bamboo music and the
sweet song
Igel-igel ida cara garuda Her dance resembles the movements
matangkis of the mighty bird Garuda
Igel-igel ida cara garuda Her dance resembles the movements
matangkis of the mighty bird Garuda
Kecag kecog gilag gileg ngilu She steps and hops while turning her
bau neck
Kecag kecog gilag gileg ngilu She hops and steps while turning her
bau neck
The mood, tempo, emotion and expression of dance are bound tightly with the accompanying song; so much corresponds between the lyrics and the movement. There are many specific movement-oriented phrases such as karag kirig, back and forth, or tepuk api dong ceburin, jump into fire. One way of understanding what is happening here, from a performance rather than a religious or ceremonial perspective, is that the lyrics are guiding or helping to indicate choreography to the dancers even though they are in trance. So, although the movements and gestures are improvised and not rehearsed, structure exists and, to some extent, choreographic command is provided by the lyrics. Combined with the discipline of rhythms, a form of basic choreographic control is in place. The dancers are, in effect, told when to hop like birds and when to sway and move their necks. As in hypnotic suggestion, the young dancers are guided through the whole ceremony and will remember nothing of it as they awake at the end. The words of the song also identify precisely the type of Sanghyang. Just as the same songs here describe the movements of the celestial nymphs in Sanghyang dedari, so too with the song in the horse Sanghyang:
Sanghyang Jaran Horse Spirit
Ikut nyane kenjir kori (2 x) The tail growing from his back
Dangkark dikrik di pasisi Dancing like a crazy horse on the
(2 x) beach
Tepuk api dong ceburin When encountering fire, leaps
through it
Macan loreng There is a tiger with beautiful
coloured markings
Mangelur tengah alase (2 x) Growling in the forest
I jaran jejeh mangetor (2 x) The horse is desperate and scared
Tepuk api dong ceburin When he meets fire, he leaps
through it
In the village of Ketewel, the Sanghyang shares many characteristics with other Sanghyang performances but has a number of distinct features. There, Sanghyang has four chronological sections. The celestial nymphs Sulasih and Nilotama appear first. Minaka and Gudita dance second. Gagar Mayang and then Tunjung Beru come third. The last to dance are Gudita and Supraba. While Gudita performs twice, in the second and the final section, there are two masks of two further celestial nymphs, Took and Kentrut, who are not usually performed for unknown reasons. This might be simply because those two celestial nymphs are marginal in current Balinese mythologies, or because these two spirits refuse to descend for lack of worshippers. Some people suspect that it could also be because, to the Balinese ear, the names do not sound as beautiful as the other seven. Beauty in its many forms is very important to the Balinese view of life. The masks used in this village temple are considered so holy they can never be photographed or even looked at outside the moment of performance. Although there are always common patterns of procedure, movement, repetition and choreography that identify the type of each Sanghyang performance, unpredictable actions often occur. Dancers in trance have been known to suddenly run away from the ceremony and get lost among the trees and bushes, pursued by villagers in the dark before any harm can come to them. During the pig Sanghyang, villagers in trance sometimes roll around in the mud and eat any rubbish that they find. In the monkey Sanghyang, dancers often climb up trees and hang from branches; a dancer in trance has been known to tear apart a live chicken and eat the stomach still raw. The unpredictable is a common and important part of the whole event. In a way, it can be argued that this unpredictability is essential to the communal understanding of the event as real trance, during which actual possession occurs; in this state of consciousness, the performers no longer have control of their own actions. Another ceremony for the observing villagers is ancangan druwene, dedicated after the climax of the performance. When the fire embers have been scattered away and the dancing ground has become dim, some people begin to clear the ground of ashes, while the rest expect the entranced Sanghyang to speak and give instructions as to how the villagers can improve prosperity or cure the problem for which the performance was enacted. Otherwise, a small selected number of people often approach the entranced Sanghyang to pay homage to them and respectfully raise questions regarding current issues and problems of the local community. Through this question-andanswer
encounter between the Sanghyang and the village representatives, the entire village population would deduce what action to take to restore and improve people’s welfare.
To conclude the dance, the priest sprinkles holy water on the dancers to bring them back to consciousness. He then sprinkles the water on the entire congregation, accompanied by the song of Sekar Jepun that ends the trance:
Sekar jepun, Angrek lan ratna Frangipani, orchid and white Medori
medori putih flowers
Teleng petak tunjung beru White Teleng flowers and a blue
lotus
Dedari makarya tirta The celestial nymph creates holy
water
Tirta hening mawadah sibuh Golden sweet pitcher of pure holy
Kencana manis water
Tirta empul sudhamala Holy water of natural springs to
clean impurity
Dong siratin ragane tirta Please sprinkle it on us
The Sanghyang’s assigned assistants lift the dancers up from the ground and lay their heads on their laps. When the dancers regain normal consciousness, the headdress is taken off first and returned to a holy storage place, always separate from the rest of the dance costume. Terms that refer to the concluding session are ngalinggihang (placing) and ngaluhur (ascending or departure). Incantation and offerings are dedicated to make dancers regain consciousness. The community implements the oracles or suggestions that the entranced Sanghyang dancers conveyed during the show in the hope of reinforcing safety, welfare and increasing prosperity.
These are the general rules, systems and structures behind all Sanghyang performances. However, each performance of a specific Sanghyang has many elements that give it unique character, adding to our fuller understanding. A performance of Sanghyang deling, puppet Sanghyang, observed in May 1994 in a mountain village of Kintamani, Kayu Kapas, in the north of Bali, gives fascinating insights into this extraordinary form of performance. The four-part general structure was followed, as in most other types of Sanghyang, as already described. For several weeks before the ceremony the two young girls (chosen by the priest) who are to perform the dance were confined to live in the temple, assisting the priest in cleaning and looking after everything within the temple area. The initiation of the performance, such as solemnising/ worshipping (penyungsungan), invoking (nedunang), reporting (matur piuning) and waking up (nangiang) a particular spirit had begun from the priest’s decision and consequent directions, based on guidance that the priest received from private communication with the spirits. The priest then told villagers to make offerings and to memorise the songs and music. He also told them to clean the surrounding area and the temple, which takes several days to complete. On a particular transitional day of three-day week, five-day week and seven-day week of the Balinese calendar, the priest directs the villagers to dress the dancers, to prepare the gamelan music and to display the offerings so that he, the priest, dressed in white robes, can dedicate the offerings to the supreme God and the other celestial gods and goddesses and spirits dwelling in that small mountain temple. Adoring, glorifying and praising gods and spirits with mantra and hymn chorus are essential prerequisites to perform Sanghyang.
In the early evening (around 6:00 p.m.) the dancers, two small girls aged 9 and 11, are dressed in one corner of the temple. They are bound tightly in a white cloth and then decorative, golden garments are fitted on top. They wear a full-length green sarong on the bottom half of their bodies and a decorative apron, lamak, in red and gold on the top. They also wear a highly decorated neckband, bapang, in the same colours. Long, white or yellow scarves made of net that can be held up like wings are attached to the body of the costume. The costume is finished with sequined wrist and arm bands, gelangkana. Both girls wear bright-red lipstick. Whilst the girls are dressed, life goes on in a relaxed way elsewhere around the temple as adults and children come and go. About an hour later the girls and the villagers all process down a narrow, winding country lane to a small temple where the ceremony will take place. It is now dark and oil lamps are lit around the ceremonial area.
The temple is very basic with a crude altar area. Otherwise, there is only bare ground, indicating that the community living in the village is poor. On this evening, the ceremony solemnisation is intensified by the simultaneous praying of all participants in order to secure God’s blessing, culminating in the priest sprinkling holy water, tirta, three times on every single participant, having them drink three drops of tirta three times and
wetting each of their faces. The villagers conclude the praying by using water to stick several kernels of rice on their heads to be endowed with aesthetic sensibility, on the bottom part of their necks to be endowed with happiness and by swallowing several grains of rice to be endowed with a perfect life. Most villagers would simply do it, imitating their seniors, without reciting or knowing the appropriate puja, prayer. This preliminary ceremony concludes when both dancers kneel on either side of a string which is pulled tightly between two posts sitting about a metre and a half apart. A pair of deling figures made of palm leaf are attached to the string; previously, this had been brought down to the temple by the small procession and set up by assistants to the priest. As preparations continue, the priest gives offerings and prays at the altar. The musician begins to play using a medium-sized hand drum as the lead instrument to control the dynamic and punctuation as necessary, bamboo flutes to play the melody, cymbals to enrich the rhythm and knob chimes for keeping time. The music plays alternately with a chorus group who recite the chanting and songs to initiate and accompany the dance in harmony. Two of the male villagers manipulate the posts so that the two deling puppet figures now appear to dance. The chorus provides the song; the text imparts the underlying theme, as described earlier in the chapter, while the priest gives whispered narration and subtle dialogue in the form of a mantra. From a puppetry perspective, this form could be considered as a basic, crude form of Balinese ritual string-puppet performance (Bali has no other string puppet traditions). In ancient Indian puppetry, for example, the one who holds and manipulates the string in the performance is known as sutradhara, which translates as ‘artistic director’ in contemporary Bali and Indonesia. In the performance of Sanghyang deling, string puppet, the sutradhara consists first of two men who are then replaced by the two girl dancers. By manipulating the string and sticks, they are responsible for holding and manipulating the spirit’s journey down from the sky to the earth for their dance.
In Sanghyang deling, the spirit descends from the sky to the figure of deling, to the string/thread and finally to the dancers’ body. After the dancers manipulate the string, exotic ritual mechanisms begin in order for the spirit deling to enter and manipulate the dancers so that their daily actions are transformed into extra daily movements in accordance with the demands of the spirit character temporarily dwelling inside them. While a theatre anthropologist might term the extra daily movement as acting technique, this Sanghyang trance does not employ the techniques of natya darmi or loka darmi, stylised or realistic acting. In the sense that the performer internalises an external impulse, the trance may be similar in some ways to highly stylised acting, but the trance process does not activelyundergo a lengthy process of imitation, repetition and emulation of a given established form or character. There is no study of character, gesture or movement as the entranced dancer, with complete internal commitment, belief and devotion, is immediately ready to passively submit/surrender herself as a vehicle into which the spirit can descend.
In terms of the choreography, the composition of this Sanghyang deling may be divided into four parts:
1 a pair of puppet figures, deling, dance on the string;
2 two female dancers put on their headdresses and manipulate fans whilst
they sway and dance;
3 the dancing deling figures dance, standing on the shoulders of men;
and
4 the performers descend and dance by and through the flames.
The two fully costumed girls, who are as yet without headdress, calmly sit on either edge of the string with a special companion, usually an elder relative, sitting behind them. The duet dance of the flat puppets commences while the priest is sitting at the centre of the string, between the two girls, invoking the spirit, whilst the string is manipulated, making the puppets jump up and down and along the string moving towards each other. Along with the accompanying chanting and music, the dance of the puppets begins with a slow tempo and soon develops its dynamic and tempo towards the climax of the dance. Throughout this process the priest fans aromatic incense smoke into the faces of the two girls, which does not seem to cause any discomfort as they breathe in the scents. Contrary to some speculation, no narcotic substances are in the incense pot – only bark and herbs, dominated by sandalwood. It is sensual stimulation and not a chemically induced experience, as the evocative music and perfumed smoke add to the effect of the flickering oil light. After about ten minutes, the dancers themselves take hold of the sticks and continue to make the puppets dance, maintaining the manipulation of the sticks so that the spirit of deling may enter the girl dancers. The dancers close their eyes and eventually become weak and unsteady on their feet, understood by all as a visual clue to the beginning of a trance state. Their companions then help them to put on the headdresses as their own hand movements are slow and a little unfocused. Now, both dancers go into deeper trance and move as though in a dream as the headdresses complete the full Legong dance costume. It is as though the headdress actually completes the trance induction and acts as a psychological cue to commence the second stage of the ritual. The girls stand up and begin to dance holding their golden, decorated fans that their assistants have handed to them.
We can get a better sense and overall understanding of the dance through the lyrics of the song in which an underlying, shared knowledge exists that a deling is a beautiful legendary Balinese female figure who resembles images of celestial nymphs. The poetic images evoked by the lyrics create, for the villagers and dancers, a visual image of beauty and serenity. There is also specific choreographic direction and an indication of an intensifying emotional state:
Dewi Ayu Beautiful Angel
Dewi ayu dewi suci Ida lunga Beautiful holy angel who gently
walks
mangulangun around
Mangungsi ke gunung sekar Heading towards the mountain
flowers
Tetamanan bagus dedara In the beautiful celestial park
Mangulati sekar tunjung Seeking a lotus flower
Tunjung emas tunjung kuning Golden lotus, yellow lotus
Lelakon sami mangindang Walking is now flying
Mangindang sisin telaga Flying over the pool of water
Mangindangi I capung emas Complementing the golden
dragonfly
Mekadi kupu-kupu matarum Whilst butterflies dance alongside
Metarum makepet mas dadua They dance with a pair of golden
fans
Manyaliog mauderan Sweeping around everywhere
Tetanjeke manolih-nolih Sometimes perching and eyeing
Manolih juru kidunge Glances at the singers
Juru kidung sampun The chorus has flocked here and
madampyak seated attentively
Karsan ida nunas lungsuran They have come to request the sight
sekar of beauty
Picayang dewa picayang Please award it God
Icenin juru kidunge Please award it to the chorus
Dewa ayu, yat tiyat dewa ayu Hail beautiful, honourable nymph
Mariki dewa masolah Please come here and dance
Masolah magulu wangsul Dance and move your neck
Gulu wangsul (2 x) Move your neck
Tetanjeke cara jawa manayog Make your Javanese steps and sway
cara den bukit your hands in the northern
Balinese way
Inggek-inggek yat tiyat Strolling and strolling
ingek-ingek
Kadi merake mangelo Strutting like a peacock
Makeber ikute luwung Displaying its beautiful tail
Ikut luwung (2 x) Its tail so beautiful
Mapontang mamata mirah Decorated with eyes like precious
makebyur stones
ebone miyik that radiate sweet scent
Miyik nyangluh yat tiyat Fragrant sweet delicious aroma
miyik nyangluh
Gegandan gadung kasturi The scent of the Gadung flower
Miyik nyangluh maimpugan Fragrant sweetness permeating the
air
Mahimpugan yat tiyat Permeating the air, yes the air
maimpugan
Seneng ratu ayu sayan edan The Nymph dances wildly and
mangigelin passionately
The basic vocabulary of movements is made up of the swinging and swaying gestures, alternate foot steps and moving hands complemented by bending of the body to the right and left with closed eyes (closed rather than the rapidly darting, dancing eyes of later forms). Although the costume is now similar in many ways to that of the secular Legong dance, the vocabulary of movements and choreography is much simpler as the forerunner and a less sophisticated version of that contemporary Legong form. The original costume was much simpler and less ornate, but the wheel has turned full circle as the modern forms now influence the root from where it originated. This simple choreography, lack of special stage decoration, the bare-ground performance area and lack of formal audience serve to intensify the solemnity of the event, as does the complete spiritual commitment of all the local performers and participants. The gestures are unrefined and improvised throughout, in stark contrast to the exquisitely performed and painstakingly rehearsed secular Legong, now seen by many visitors to the island. The dancing continues for 15 minutes before each dancer climbs up (eyes still closed and supported by their assistants) onto the shoulders of a man – often a relative. The girls look tiny and frail, standing, usually unsupported, high up on the shoulders of the men as they move around the courtyard. Still swaying back and forth, moving their fans with numerous repetitive gestures, keeping their eyes closed and occasionally arching their bodies backwards, both dancers remain in perfect balance while dancing in their newly elevated position. The extraordinary feat of balance is enabled by the trance state and is an important ritual part of the dance. Without possession, a contemporary Balinese dancer cannot emulate this and in the secularised, tourist-oriented versions of Sanghyang, the dancers sit on the shoulders and do not attempt to stand. In an interesting, informal workshop experiment at Middlesex University, England in 2002, led by Leon Rubin (one of the authors) and Professor of Psychology David Marks, this process was simulated with professional Western actors. The actors were asked to attempt the same feat in a normal rehearsal situation, with actresses trying to balance on actors’ shoulders. Not surprisingly, they were unable to achieve this at all over a 20-minute period. Then simulated hypnosis was used, in which the acting company was asked to relax for a few minutes, without hypnotic induction, and then simulate a hypnotic state in order to try the challenge again. In other words, they were asked to act in the way they believed they would act if really hypnotised. The improvement was clear: 50 per cent of the participating pairs were able to quickly achieve momentary, basic balance within a few minutes of trying. In the final phase, genuine hypnotic induction was used and the feat tried again with considerable improvement and success for all but one of the pairs. The experiment, although informal and not rigorously enforced, suggested that a dissociated state of conscious allows a performer to achieve more than that individual’s conscious mind would usually allow. However, even more interesting is the notion that relaxation and confidence, created in a simulated hypnotic state, is also effective. The implication for possible use in Western theatre training would be interesting to pursue. In terms of understanding the Sanghyang ritual, an apparently solid connection exists between complete belief and subjection to the trance state and the physical results achieved. Dancing while balancing on the shoulders lasts about 15 minutes, after which both dancers step down to continue their dance on the ground, both facing the flames. The dancers of Sanghyang deling do not always dance completely through the fire, unlike the entranced performers in Sanghyang jaran, but each dancer dances in front of the flame of the burned coconut husks, which are gathered into two groups towards one side of the dancing site. They do not seem to be hurt or distressed as their small feet touch the burning husks.
The fire ritual signals that the ceremony will soon end as the final phase begins. The female dancers appear tired and kneel next to their special companions. The priest makes offerings and recites incantations in order to make the dancers regain full consciousness. The most discernable moment of transition from the state of trance to consciousness, during which time they open their eyes for the first time since the commencement of the trance state, is when the priest sprinkles holy water three times on and near both dancers. Their companions take off the headdresses and put them in a sacred place, while the dancers cup their hands in front of their bodies, the right hand over the left, over which the priest pours holy water for her to drink three times. The scene concludes with the last sprinkling of holy water over all the onlookers, after which both dancers retire to the dressing area to take off their performance costumes.
In an interview immediately after the ceremony, the girls seem happy and elated by the experience. They say that they do not remember any details after closing their eyes. They did not express any fear or disquiet about the events, but both were keen to point out that they like the honour attached to being chosen for the role. In this particular village, they had been chosen directly by the priest, probably for their susceptibility to trance, although in some villages there seems to be more of a family connection to the priest. In Bona village, where a semi-secularised form is frequently performed for visitors, dance skill is looked at in addition to other factors. Here, however, the priest and girls were insistent that there had never been any training or rehearsal and that all the dance was created by the possessing spirit. The dancers have to be replaced often as they are no longer allowed to dance once their first menstruation occurs.
In looking at Sanghyang deling alongside the other forms of Balinese trance, such as Sutri or another form of Sanghyang or even the later dance forms of Sanghyang legong and the secular Legong dance, we can see the historical and interrelated influences at work in the continuity and changes of Balinese female dance. The Sanghyang dedari appears to be the origin of Sanghyang legong, which in turn is the origin of the secular Legong dance and a number of other contemporary Balinese dances. The major difference is actually concerning the eye movements that are emphasised in contemporary forms of Balinese dance, as opposed to the closed eyes of all the sacred trance forms. The eyes are very important for expressing character, but in the trance forms the detail is contained within the movements and narrative songs. As in many forms of meditation across Asia, the purpose of closing the eyes, beside concentration, is to activate the third eye, which suggests more connection towards the invisible upper world rather than the terrestrial world. In addition, aesthetic considerations are minor during trance performances as the focus is on spiritual matters in relation to the descending spirits. These are the main differences between the original source trance forms and the descendent forms. In the most recently developed form of Sanghyang legong, the cultural entertainment dance, the rapid, darting eye movements or ‘eye flicking’ as it is often described, is deliberate and exquisite, carefully choreographed and well rehearsed in accordancewith the accompanying music, especially the drum patterns and the accentuated beat of the kempur and gong chimes. Here, the dancer is required to show the beauty of her eyes, and the accuracy of the eye movements demonstrates her skill; blinking and closing of eyes are frowned upon. In Western traditions, the eyes are not usually important for dance, but in acting for camera, they are a key to understanding emotion and sometimes character. The coded body posture that shapes the dancer’s body like a sculpture is divided into right and left positions that are also extensively used and, indeed, exaggerated in Legong. The simple hand gestures and footsteps of the sacred Sanghyang dance are highly developed into delicate and controlled movements and gestures in the secular Legong dance and a number of other contemporary Balinese dance forms. The basis for the modern-day Legong dance costume is the basic, minimally decorated costume traditionally used by the Sanghyang trance (it can be seen in a number of books, paintings and other documents in museums throughout the island), which has now been highly developed into a colourful and ornate costume. Today, most Legong dancers are chosen for looks and ability rather than for the traditional reasons outlined earlier. Some gamelan music repertoires accompanying Legong dance are patterned from the melody of Sanghyang song. For example, the Sanghyang song ‘Beautiful Angel’, translated earlier in this chapter, is now played extensively in gamelan orchestras with various patterns of drumming and other percussive embellishments to accompany the Legong dance. Similarly, the gamelan music repertoire accompanying the Telek masked dance are taken from and patterned after the melody of another Sanghyang song. Legong, Telek and other newer forms have developed rapidly since the creation of ASTI (Akademi Seni Tari Indonesia, Indonesian Academy of Dance), now known as ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia Denpasar, Balinese Academy of Arts), and SMKI (Sekolah Menengah Kesenian Indonesia, High School for Performing Arts) in the 1970s and have now almost replaced Sanghyang as a form, except for rare ritual contexts when the emphasis is still on divine devotion. The main exception is in the village of Bona where a version of Sanghyang dedari is performed for religious and tourist purposes. However, mixed opinions exist as to the authenticity of these performances as full, glamorous Legong costumes are worn and the performances are shortened to fit with tourist expectations. Some villages, though, are simply able to distinguish between performances when the spirits do descend and those when they do not. They are able to accept parallel use of the same form in and out of sacred context and see no conflict, while others bemoan the secularisation process and see it as a serious threat to tradition. This question applies to other forms of trance performance in Bali. With an increase in tourism to Bali, non-sacred and largely faked versions of trance have sprung up and are performed regularly for visitors in several performance sites in addition to Bona, especially in south part of Bali, such as Ubud, Kuta, Sanur and Nusa Dua. Before the Kuta bomb blast, these largely faked versions of trance were performed several times a week. They tended to combine the bright costumes and the sophisticated vocabulary of movements of Legong, for example, with the solemn manner of a sacred version, creating a hybrid form, thereby making three forms: sacred, secular and fake-sacred. The strong face make-up imitates the secular Legong dance and the choreography has been rearranged and transformed from the original improvised choreography into organised, more elaborate choreography suitable for a paying audience. Since the secular versions are performed more frequently than the sacred ones, in some places, such as Bona, the same dancers are used for all three versions. This has had a significant impact over the pure version; the ritual performance of Sanghyang legong at Ketewel recently concluded with the currently popular Legong kraton dance, in the same temple area and by the same dancers and musicians. Indeed, current performances of sacred Sanghyang deling in Kintamani, Sanghyang dedari in Camengaon and Bona, and the ritual Sanghyang legong at Ketewel have all adopted the costume from the secular Legong dance. The dance tends to be choreographed as though for a proscenium stage, as for the tourist performances, although the stage in the temple is still an arena and the audiences fill all 75 per cent of the stage perimeter. In other words, the audience occupies three sides of the stage, but the dancers face in only one direction.
Viewed from the acting technique perspective, one development of interest appears in the newer, tourist versions: the techniques of using sense memory and emotional recall do not apply here because there can, of course, be no experience of being an angel or celestial nymph. Though the women may have performed the Sanghyang dances and are now asked to perform the fake one, they do not remember what they did as they were in a trance, so consequently they can express little of the emotion they felt while in a trance. The Sanghyang trance is an emotional experience with heightened sensations and feelings that are transmitted by the performer to the onlookers. This is unusual in Balinese and most Asian performance forms. The techniques of imitation, emulation and internalising the external form, image or character into the dancer’s internal system (as observed in most oriental stylistic acting forms) dominates. The women must have observed other dancers to know what to do and how to act. Their task now is to translate that knowledge into a convincing performance, in the same way a mask becomes a dancer’s face. Therefore, the acting techniques of the sacred and fake forms of the performances are quite different. In the sacred form, the dancer totally submits herself and, consequently, forgets what her body has done, while in the second form, she is deliberately moulding her body into what is expected of her. As Sanghyang has developed and changed, with additional choreographic components and a variety of embellishments, into several dances, viewing it from the diachronic perspective is important. It can be seen as having spawned three forms of Balinese female dance. In addition, the Sanghyang musical component has developed into one Kecak chorus, mime and dance, with all the theatrical elements of plot, theme, male and female characters, song and speech. This therefore connects the trance Sanghyang dedari at Camengaon and Bona or the trance Sanghyang deling in Kintamani to that of the ceremonial Sanghyang legong at Ketewel. In turn, it is possible to connect it to the contemporary secular Legong dance found throughout the island and to the tourist performances of the Kecak choir. From the sacred Sanghyang dedari, deling, sutri and the ceremonial Sanghyang legong, to the secular Legong dance, these genres still share remarkable similarities, although the newer forms have become increasingly artistically sophisticated in terms of their movements, choreography, costumes and coded body gestures. Sanghyang dedari and Sanghyang deling are obviously perceived as the original form of Sanghyang legong, which eventually developed into the newer Legong dance. The male Kecak chanting, one musical component of Sanghyang dedari, has been rearranged to accompany the Kecak dance-drama, drawing its story from the Ramayana epic; Kecak is now the only Balinese dance-drama accompanied fully by vocal music by between 60 and 150 male chanters. In each of the above developing stages, the following eight divergent elements are continually modified; noticing the different ways that these elements are incorporated into each genre is the key to understanding the artistic creativity within each performance form. These elements, then, are a summary of factors that an observer needs to identify in order to understand what type and form of performance is taking place:
1 Costumes: headdress, mask, necklace, shoulder cover, bracelet, shirt,gold painted belt, side strap and make-up. The earlier Sanghyang performances use a minimum of these items and the more contemporary
forms employ all of them in a highly decorative form. In the horse Sanghyang, the mask-making goes through the process of melaspas (purification), pasupati (spiritual possession) and majaya-jaya (celebration).
2 Movement: the vocabulary of movement directly identifies the type of descending spirit. The Sanghyang deling, Sanghyang dedari and Sutri use gentle and narrow footsteps, complemented by complex and
rich hand movements and graceful body gestures and sometimes tutup dada, chest bends, and lamak, front steps. Character is manifested through soft facial movements, elegant chin and neck movements representing the manifestation of nymph spirits. The horse Sanghyang jaran, on the other hand, demands extremely large steps and coarse action. Small rapid steps, kicking, frequent hopping and jumping, strong foot movement and body gestures reinforce the character, without moving the hands, as the dancer is grasping and manipulating the figure of a fabricated horse. In the first stage, as the dancer starts entering a trance, he looks tired, trembles, closes his eyes and suddenly makes extreme movements and collapses, crying. The body goes rigid and then slumps, but the dancer immediately resists anyone trying to touch his body.
3 Gender: diction and or patterns of speech and movement are different according whether they are associated with male or female characters. A series of gestures and poses for male characters include: standing positions with both knees bent, feet turned out, toes flexed up, with a wide stance; strong, large and staccato gestures; long strides, high lifting of the foot, sudden and less flowing movements and gestures than female characters. The voice for the male character is loud, fast, low in pitch and less melodic than the female. By contrast, the female character employs almost the opposite series of movements, tones of voice and poses. She is required to stand with her knees close together (to demonstrate modesty), in a narrow stance, with fingertips turning in. The delicate movement of hands is especially important and they must gracefully sculpt the air in the manner typical of a refined character. She has to move gently and more flowingly, in a smaller amount of space, with grace and calm strength and has to take more grounded and shorter footsteps than the male character does. Her voice must be melodic, high in pitch and sweet.
4 Musical/vocal accompaniment: the female chorus sings Kidung and there are various songs containing poetic lyrics. The male chorus uses seven layers of chak interlocking chants.
5 Stage/arena/performance sites: the choreographic arrangements observe and suit either the arena or proscenium-type stage. The sacred Sanghyang trance is typically performed in the innermost courtyard of
the temple, the ceremonial show in the second courtyard, and the secular one can be performed anywhere except in the innermost temple.
6 Apparatus: types of offerings and performance properties and accessories. Secular performance has few rules, but in sacred trance performance all objects are minimal and always constructed of natural materials. Offerings vary according to the circumstance.
7 Story or narrative: this is important and the form determines whether the dances are ritual or dramatic; local practices are also distinctive. For example, at Sedang and Jangu village, no water or holy water may
touch the dancer’s body, otherwise the dancer may be burned or the trance may not be successful. Secular performances sometimes add narrative complexities such as the extract from the Ramayana told in contemporary Kecak performance.
8 Performers and participants/audience: Sanghyang dancers must be ritually purified through a typical ceremony called mawinten. In the period leading up to the performance, the dancers may have to follow strict codes of good behaviour. In sacred performances, the audience is usually local villagers only, although outsiders are not banned. There may be rules concerning the banning of cameras and recording devices, such as during the Sangyhyang legong performances in Ketewel.
Although barely surviving in Bali today, Sanghyang has left behind a rich legacy of descendent forms. It may not be long before that original form becomes extinct. Chapter 4 deals with the ancient tradition that is in manyways the opposite of Sanghyang. Gambuh, unlike Sanghyang, focuses on technique and the aesthetics of performance. Unlike Sanghyang, it deals specifically with narrative and involves a whole company of performers who concentrate on demonstrating carefully learnt gestures and movements within a tightly structured form. Unlike Sanghyang, it has a protected status and elevated position within religious and performance traditions.
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