The first day of Classical Dance and Drama Performance (9/27/2007) was a kind of traveling back to the forgotten era of Balinese dance and drama performance. The performances which took place in Art Centre Denpasar, began at 7:30 PM, on an open stage, luckily no there was no rain pouring down.

The first performance that night was Leko dance from Jembrana regency. Leko is a type of social dance, may be a flirtation dance as a matter of fact, the ancestor of widely popular Joged Bumbung dance. In old days, Leko was a palace dance, designed for the entertainment of the king, nowadays it is a popular social dance that anybody can enjoy and participate. It is performed by a pairs of female dancers and usually involves the audience.

The Leko performance that night was surely an entertainment, a pair of beautiful dancers danced with the accompaniment of rindik (an ensemble in which the instruments are made of bamboo) orchestra.

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Most of the temple anniversaries and ceremonies in Bali are held based on the traditional Pawukon cycle. The Pawukon cycle also called uku or wuku, was brought to Bali in the 14th century with the fleeing Hindu follower of the collapsed Majapahit empire. The Pawukon calendar flourishes in Bali though it originated from Java. The Pawukon cycle provides the reference system for most of the religious ceremonies in Bali, as well as market days, temple anniversaries, personal anniversaries, good and bad luck days, and days for doing particular things. A Pawukon “year”, which lasts 210 days, should really be thought as a cycle, since no record is kept of successive “years”, nor are they numbered or named, they just pass by. (image from http://www.louisg.net/C_balinais.htm)

The Pawukon cycle is quite complex since its 210 days are subdivided not according to simple system of months and weeks but into ten separate week systems. There is a week that only consists of one day; one consists of two days; one consists of three days, and so on, up to ten-day week. And they all run concurrently. And to add more complication on the cycle, Pawukon cycle also divides its 210 days into another thirty weeks known as Wuku. Each Wuku has its own name; each week consists of seven days, luckily there is no unique name for each day in these Wuku weeks.

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