Kecak

The dark expanse of the banyan tree above the temple gate casts a dense shadow on the courtyard and the carvings that flicker like apparitions in the uneven light. A serpentine stream of bodies coils itself, circle within circle, around a large, branching torch. Two hemispheres of men: one, a pattern of silhouettes; th other, sculptural faces of brown skin caught in a net of torchlight. The half-seen multitude waits in silence. A priest enters with offerings, a blessing of holy water. One piercing voice cracks the suspense; the circle electrifies.

No other dance is so unnerving as the amazing Kecak: one hundred and fifty men who, by a regimented counterplay of sounds, simulate the orchestration of the gamelan. Kecak, a name indicating the "chak-a-chak" sounds, evolved from the male chorus of the ritual Sanghyang trance ceremony. By a choreography ingeniously simple, chorus is transfigured into ecstasy. The annihilation of the individual, the cries, the erratic pulse of sound and sublimated violence of the Kecak are perfectly contained in the precise use of a few basic motions of head, arms and torso. Through a coordination rehearsed for months prior to a performance, various parts of the dance merge in a startling continuum of grouped motion and voice. Many words and gestures have no meaning other than as derivatives of incantations to drive out evil, as was the original purpose of the Sanghyang chorus.

Kecaks include a drama, in which the circle of light around the torch becomes a stage, and its periphery of men, a living theatre with all dramatic effects. Accompanied by the bizarre music of human instruments, the storyteller relates the episode enacted within the performance, usually one drawn from Hindu epic poem, the Ramayana. When demon-king Rawana leaps to the center, the chorus simulates his flight with a long hissing sound. When Hanoman enters the mystic circle, the men become an army of chattering monkeys-hence, the nickname "Monkey Dance".