What is the Balinese Monkey Chant?
Today the Monkey Chant is a tourist-friendly Balinese spectacle during which over a hundred male performers wearing checked waist cloths, chanting “cak!,” gesture boldly with their arms to act out the tale in which the monkey-like Vanara aids Prince Rama in his fight against evil King Ravana.
What does the Kecak dance tells?
Kecak Dance is said to originate from a Balinese ancient ritual called Sanghyang, aimed as a form of exorcism or to repel evil spirits in which dancers fall into a trance. Kecak Dance is regularly performed in many places all over Bali Island.
How is kecak performed?
Also known as the Ramayana monkey chant, the dance is performed by a circle of as many as 150 performers wearing checked cloths around their waists, percussively chanting “chak” and moving their hands and arms. Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.
Who invented Kecak?
I Wayan Limbak
Bali Kecak dance is created by a Balinese dancer named I Wayan Limbak with collaboration with Walter Spies, a painter from Germany. They started to create this dance in 1930. These people had found their interested in a spiritual Balinese dance.
What is Kecak Fire dance?
The Kecak Fire Dance is an elaborate performance based on the Hindu epic, Ramayana. It’s performed by about 50 people with a large portion of them being tasked with chanting the famous “chak, chak, chak” sound and performing basic routines while seated on the ground.
What does the kecak dance drama reenact?
In its pure form, the Kecak dance is a religious ceremony performed for several hours on successive nights over three to four months. It is a purification process in Balinese tradition to exorcise evil during times of peril and pestilence.
Why is kecak called the fire dance?
The “fire” in the Kecak fire dance comes when Ravana tries to burn Hanuman alive, and of course, it’s depicted in the dance by burning a few bunches of wood which burn brightly but quickly into beautiful floating embers.
Is named after a Balinese monkey chant?
Known to the western world as the monkey dance, kecak was developed in the 1930s … [It] is often described as a form of gamelan suara (voice orchestra) and is named for the onomatopoeic sound cak or cek chanted throughout the performance.”
How old is Balinese?
Mostly performed during rituals, the origin of these Balinese dances can be dated back to 14th-19th centuries. These often have a story and characters playing out a drama in the form of a dance.
How old is Kecak?
What is this? Although the form Kecak has nowadays dates back just to the 1930s (we’ll see that later), this ritual form of chant and dance is much more atavic and rooted in Balinese ancestral culture.
What is unique about Kecak?
A unique thing about Kecak Dance is that it has no musical instruments that accompanied the whole performance. The dance is simply accompanied by the a capella chorus from the dancers. Furthermore, the music for Kecak dance is generated from the combination of sound “cak, cak, cak…” from 50-70 male dancers.
What is Kecak Bali?
“Cak or kecak, one of Bali’s best-known performing art forms, integrates complex multi-layers of rhythmic vocal chant, dance and drama. Known to the western world as the monkey dance, kecak was developed in the 1930s …
What is Kecak in Beatmania?
None. Kecak marks John Robinson’s debut in BEMANI. Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama that developed in the 1930s in Bali, Indonesia. Kecak received a brand-new Double ANOTHER chart in beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD.
What is Kecak dance?
As a Kecak dance performance is supported by some very important factor, and in the Kecak dance performance presents the dance as an introduction to the story, of course, vital music to accompany the dancers movements.
What is Kecak and where did it originate?
The idea of Kecak came from the traditional tribal dance performed by the Balinese in Indonesia. It actually translates to “trance dance” so it seemed somehow appropriate. The tribesmen work themselves up into a frenzy, all the while chanting the “chak chak chak” sounds that you can hear in Kecak.