BALI DANCE-KIDS

Dance class  BY PAK DAMAI

Balinese dance is not for the feeble: highly expressive, with exaggerated facial expressions, bone-breaking body contortions and costumes made almost entirely of bling. The music is urgent and percussive, sounding like people moving large quantities of brassware down a long set of stairs at breakneck speed, dropping a piece here and there, ever so often loosing it all in a thundering clash.

Damai holds a class of traditional Balinese dance for the village kids. Our teacher is part of Singaraja’s magnificent dance- and music collective, Dwi Mekar, and she is a genius. Her emotions are visible from other planets.

The weekly attendance is a testament to the strength and vivacity of Balinese culture. We are in a small village, but still a good dozen children will dutifully show up. One third of them will be boys. A gifted child dancer brings pride to the family, and good performances can be savoured and reviewed for weeks.

The children are, of course, extremely charming, but now their focus is producing remarkable results. A renowned dutch choreographer tried her luck at the class only to leave exhausted and giggling, bested by the village kids.

The esteemed diarist Jack Truelove has a particularly charming series of photos on his blog from yesterday’s session, where he also tells about child dancers in Legong dance.