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Wayan Limbak, a late Balinese dancer which the popularity of his legacy has surpassed his own name, was a Baris (warrior dance) dancer who, along with Walter Spies, created the island’s famous monkey dance or Kecak. Kecak dance which is usually contracted into Cak is a contemporary Balinese dance, a secular dance that its origin can be traced to the sacred Sanghyang dance.

This dance was first created by Wayan Limbak in Bedulu village, Gianyar regency, at the request of Walter Spies. Wayan Limbak was commissioned to devise a new kind of dramatic performance which is based on Ramayana epic, accompanied solely by a chorus like that found in sacred Sanghyang Dedari performance.

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It is rather difficult to trace the origin of Janger. No place in Bali admits to having been responsible for the first janger. The north Bali says it came from south, the south attributed to north. If Bali makes Lombok responsible, Lombok says it learnt from Bali. Some expert said that the janger is derived from Sanghyang dance. The female and male choirs were taken away from Sanghyang Dedari and formed new composition. Some said that janger originated from the song of girls, who picked coffee beans from the trees in North Bali. When they were sitting together during their break in the work, they began to sing together, joined by a few boys and it developed into janger. Other said it was the Balinese answer for Sumatran Rampak Sembilan dance.

Janger dance performance on The Annual Bali Arts Festival 1996

The popularity of this art performance reached its peak in 1960s, when nearly every village and every school in Bali has its own janger group. In that time becoming a successful janger dancer was the dream of every youth. They hummed the janger song all day long, accompanying all their activities.

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Long, long time ago Balinese dance was not as rich as today, there was no beautiful Legong, nor dramatic topeng, Balinese could only boast of trance dance such as Sanghyang Memedi or Sanghyang Dedari, no conscious dance existed.

One day Kaki Semara observed some little girls who were dancing, completely in trance, without ever having had dancing instruction. A Sanghyang they sometimes had to serve as a repository for god in the temple, when he deigned to take his place within them. They were not yet approaching puberty, lived a chaste and pure life and were therefore holy, which made them suitable for this task.

Though Kaki Semara was impressed by the girls, he wondered how their dance could be made more conscious and artistic. And he decided to make it more concentrated in parts by having the girls dance a particular pattern twice instead of ten times in a row and adding new, enhancing dance accents unknown up to that time. He was so pleased with the results that he continued to look for elements that would make the dance even richer in movement.

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Development of tourism has penetrated into all aspect of Balinese life. And of course Balinese dance as an icon of Bali is among the first aspects of Balinese culture that are reshaped by the tourism. Balinese dance is reshaped from a performance for God sake to a show for amusement of tourists.

Sanghyang Dedari; source: Nadi; Trance in the Balinese Art;1999

The best example for profane-ization is the commercialization of Sanghyang Dance. Sanghyang Dance is a genre of sacred trance dance which is performed in the inner courtyard of a temple. There are nearly two dozens varieties of Sanghyang, most of them found only in remote northen and eastern mountain villages. All involve putting one or more dancers into trance by means of incense, chanting, and prayers, in order to receive possessing divinities. Inhabited by either by demonic or heavenly spirits, the entranced dancers then interact with the audience, and occasionally with each other, dancing like nymph or mimicking the animal movements and in some areas, speaking as oracles. The performance invariably involves improvisation by visiting spirits, which takes place along pre-established lines.

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