THE LOVE STORY OF RAMAYANA AND SHINTA IN A DANCE DRAMA

7th February 2016 ~ If you come to Jogjakarta without watching the Ramayana Dance, it is like you go to Bali and miss the Kechak Dance. We were given the Ramayana Theatre and dinner package, under one roof. [The amphitheatre and the restaurant are actually in separate buildings.]

The show started at about 8:00 p.m. and the audience consisted of the locals and foreign tourists. It would be better for you to read the synopsis in the brochure before the show starts, but you can always google for it later. The show was accompanied by live Gamelan musicians and singers, and there was also a narrator at the beginning of the story. Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to understand the English he was using, either because it was heavily accented or the bad PA system.

Photobomb: I am not related to any of the people on stage

Here is a short video recording of the dance drama for you to enjoy.

Read about the love story of Rama and Shinta HERE.

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BALI DAY 3 - WATCHING THE SPECTACULAR KECHAK DANCE AT DUSK

To be sitting here waiting for the Kechak Dance to start while observing the sky turned from red to orange and then the light in the sky disappeared was definitely a significant moment of my stay in Bali.

Uluwatu is the best place to watch Kechak Dance performance (according to our guide). We had to enter the venue earlier just to get the best seats. We thought we were early but there were many more earlier birds than us. If you arrive late, you will then have to sit on the floor near the half-naked men chanting "kechak, kechak" and that would not provide you with the best view throughout the whole show.

meeting my fellow countryman, Effy

There was some sort of ceremony being carried out before the dance started. And by that time, the place was full of I think more than one thousand excited tourists.

The sky was a bit cloudy so we could not really see the sun setting against the horizon.

Kechak Dance is a traditional dance that does not require any musical instruments. Those shirtless men were chanting words that we could not understand (or were they just meaningless words?) in different tones that mixed beautifully to provide the music the whole routine. It was actually a dance theatre that consisted of a few acts. Even though we might not be able to understand the story line but we were just mesmerized by the uniqueness of the dance and the vocal ensemble of the men.

The most popular character in the story would be the white monkey (known as "Hanuman Si Kera Putih"). He was very mischievous and playful in manner and would suddenly appear from nowhere and sit among the audience. Small kids might find him scary though.

There will be video recordings of the dance show later. Make sure you will come back for more.