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Legong Keraton
In legends, Legong is the
heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical
Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity
and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be
selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.
Connoisseurs
hold the dance in highest esteem and spend hours
discussing the merits of various Legong groups.
The most popular of Legongs is the Legong
Kraton, Legong of the palace. Formerly, the
dance was patronized by local rajas and held
in e puri, residence of the royal family
of the village. Dancers were recruited from the
aptest and prettiest children. Today, the trained
dancers arestill- very young; a girl of fourteen
approaches the age of retirement as a Legong
performer.
The highly stylized Legong Kraton
enacts a drama of a most purified and abstract
kind. The story is performed ' by three dancers: the
condong, a female attendant of the court, and
two identically dressed legongs (dancers),who adopt
the roles of royal persons. Originally, a storyteller
sat with the orchestra and chanted the narrative,
but even this has been refined away in many Legongs.
Only the suggestive themes of the magnificent
gamelan gong (the full Balinese orchestra)
and the minds of the audience conjure up imaginary
changes of scene in the underlying play of Legong
Kraton.
The
story derives from the history of East Java in the
1 2th and 1 3th centuries: when on a journey the
King of Lasem finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in
the forest. He takes her home and locks her in a
house of stone. Rangkesari's brother, the Prince
of Daha, learns of her captivity and threatens war
unless she is set free.
Rangkesari
begs her captor to avoid war by giving her liberty,
but the king prefers to fight. On his way to battle,
he is met by a bird of ill omen that predicts his
death. In the fight that ensues he is killed. The
dance dramatizes the farewells of the King of Laserm
as he departs for the battlefield and his ominous
encounter with the bird. It opens with an introductory
solo by the condong. She moves with infinite
suppleness, dipping to the ground and rising in
one unbroken motion, hertorso poised in an arch
with elbows and head held high, while fingers dance
circles around her wrists. Slowly, her eyes focus
on two fans laid before her and, taking them, she
turns to meet the arrival of the legongs.
The
tiny dancers glitter and dazzle. Bound from head
to foot in gold brocade, it is a wonder the legongs
can move with such fervent agitation. Yet, the
tight composure of the body, balanced by dynamic
directive gestures-the flash of an eye, the tremble
of two fingers blend in unerring precision.After
as hort dance, the condong retires, leaving
the legongs to pantomime the story within
the dance. Like a controlled line of an exquisite
drawl ing, the dancers flowfrom one identity intothel
next without disrupting the harmony of t dance.
They may enter as the double image one' character,
their movements marked tight synchronization and
rhythmical verve Then they may split, each enacting
a separate role, and come together in complementary
halves to form a unified pattern, as in the plan
ful love scene in which they "rub noses The
King of Lasem bids farewell to his queen, and takes
leave of Rangkesari. She repels his advances by
beating him with he fananddepartsin anger. lt is
then the condong reappears as a bird with wild eyes
fixed upon the king. Beating its golden wings to
a strange flutter of cymbals, it attacks the king
in a vain attempt to dissuade him from war. The
ancient narrative relates: ". .. a black bird
came flying out of the northeast and swooped down
upor the king, who saw it and said, 'Raven, hoi
come you to swoop down on me? In spiteo; all, 1
shall go out and fight. This 1 shall do, oh raven!...
With the king's decision understood the dance may
end; or the other legong may return on stage
as his prime minister, and,, shimmering unison,
they whirl thefinal stepsi: war. |
