Gamelan Sekar Jaya
Kawit Legong: Prince Karna's Dream
February 17th, 2001
@ Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
    
All Photos © 2001 Ting Vogel
    
Two Spirits Enter The Temple
Karna Showed Two Young Girls the Dance in hisVision
Dance of the Celestial Nymphs

Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a group of Americans who specialize in performing traditional Balinese music and dance. The current show at Zellerbach introduced an original theatrical work entitled "Kawit Legong: Prince Karna's Dream".

The story is based on the legend which gave rise to the Legong Dance of Bali. In the story, a prince meditates in a temple. While he was meditating, two spirits entered the temple to try to break his concentration, but were unsuccessful. At that moment, the Prince had a vision of a divine dance performed by two celestial nymphs. Upon returning to the village, he came across a dance rehearsal. With the dance teacher's help, he taught the celestial dance to two young girls. He placed two sacred masks from the temple onto the girls. With the masks on, the girls became the exact likeness of the nymphs.

In the meanwhile, an evil witch and her four disciples terrorizes a nearby village. Karna arrives to confront the witch but she drives him back. Then the voice of the temple speaks to the Prince and reveals that the way to fight the witch is by performing the Legong Dance. The dance restores order and balance between heaven and earth and the witch's power is broken. The Legong Dance is now performed annually across Bali by girls who are ritually chosen at the age of four or five to train for several years before assuming their sacred roles.

Here's a link to a review of the show by Allan Ulrich at the San Francisco Chronicle: Balinese Dance Drama a Sensuous 'Dream', Gamelan Sekar Jaya seduces at Zellerbach.

After the show, we went to Viet Nam Village for some yummy Vietnamese food!
 

Dance was Performed during a Ceremony
The witch Rangda and the Four Sisya
Gamelan Sekar Jaya
The Shadow Puppeteers
Cowboy Randy waiting for his grub
Ting the Tiger thinks of yummy pho