Bali, Kecak Dance
03 January 2007 23:55
| Travel
The famous Balinese Kecak "monkey" dance, a
folk tradition in which tribal men sit in a circle
and orchestrate chattering and clicks and voice with
simple hand movements, has been overlaid with Hindu
mythology to create a somewhat disjointed but
otherwise compelling drama. A great example of modern
narrative combining ancient and recent traditions
into a widely adoptable whole, though the apparent
seams reflect the recency of the integration, and
will surely be smoothed out over the course of the
next century or so.