Kecak Dance

The dark expanse of the banyan tree above the temple gate casts a dense shadow on the courtyard and the carvings that flicker like apparitions in the uneven light. A serpentine stream of bodies coils itself, circle within circle, around a large, branching torch. Two hemispheres of men: one, a pattern of silhouettes; the other, sculptural faces of brown skin caught in a netof torchlight.

The half-seen multitude waits in silence. A priest enters with offerings, ablessing of holy water.Onepiercing voice Cracks the suspense the circle electrifies. No other dance is so unnerving as the amazing Kecak: onehun, dredandf ifty men who, by a regimented counterplay of sounds, simulate the orchestration of the gamelan. Kecak, a name indicating the "chak-a-chak" sounds, evolved from the male chorus of the ritual Sanghyang trance ceremony. By a choreography ingeniously simple, chorus is transfigured into ecstasy,. The annihilation of the individual, the cries, the erratib pulse of sound and sublimatedviolenceof thekecak are perfectly con tained in the precise use of a few basic motions of head, armsand torso.

Through a coordination rehearsed for months prior to a performance, various parts of the dance merge in a startling continuum of grouped motion and voice. Many words and gestures have no meaning other than as derivatives of incantations to drive out evil, as was the original purpose of the Sangh yang chorus. Kecaks include a drama, in which the circle of light around the torch becomes a stage, and its periphery of men, a living theatre with all dramatic effects. Accompanied by the bizarre music of human instruments, the storyteller relates the episode enacted within the performance, usually one drawn from theramayana. When demon-king Rawana leapsto thecenter, the chorus simulates his flight with a long hissing sound. When Hanuman enters the mystic circle, the men become an army of chattering monkeys-hence, the nickname "Monkey Dance".