4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

142
from ritual to theater and back
can attend only with the permission of the village giving
the performance.
During two weeks in Bali in 1972 I saw two such performances.
MacIntosh and I stumbled on a ketchak while walking through the
monkey forest near Ubud – we followed some women carrying offerings
of food. Once in Tigal we stayed there for ten hours before the
ketchak began a little after 9 p.m. Years later, around 1980, I discovered
that the ketchak which I thought was traditional, that is, very old and
part of the Balinese ceremonial cycle, was a rather recent addition to
the island’s repertory. According to Bandem and de Boer:
This composite genre was first created by dancers in Bedulu village,
Gianyar Province, who were commissioned by Walter Spies [in the
1920s or 30s?]. The group was requested to devise a new kind of
Ramayana performance, accompanied solely by the Cak chorus found
in Sang Hyang Dedari [a form of trance dancing]. Today fourteen
professional groups perform [ketchak] regularly.
(Bandem and de Boer 1981: 146)
Of course it remains to be seen when, or if, even an invented genre is
organically grafted onto an indigenous tradition. Were my field notes
wrong – or did the Balinese by 1972 already have two kinds of ketchak,
one for tourists, one for themselves?
At Tenganan, a “Bali aga” village – a place where descendants of the
presumed original inhabitants of the island live – we saw, and to some
degree participated in, what all authorities agree is an old, traditional
ritual dance, the annual abuang Kalah. Some of the ceremony was public
and about fifty tourists joined the villagers to enjoy the afternoon
dancing. These people were asked to leave by 5 p.m. We were quietly
told to remain in the town office. Then, after dark, we were taken to
different compounds in the village for different aspects of the ceremony.
We were also allowed to listen to special gamelan music played
before dawn. We weren’t allowed to photograph and only a limited
amount of tape-recording was permitted. The daytime ceremonies definitely
had the feel of an entertainment – outsiders came in, shops were
open and doing a brisk business, the dances were carefully choreographed
to the gamelan music. At night the scene was different. Each