There is no accompanying orchestra on this dance. Instead,
a large group of men provide a continuous vocal background,
something like a sound picture of an ocean in all its moods.
They are dressed only in black and white check sarong, with
red flower behind the right ear and a white one behind the
left.
They
move around on their haunches, sometimes swaying from this
side to that, sometimes bouncing up and down, sometimes flinging
themselves for head in a circle with arms outstretched toward
the center. All the time they utter a non-verbal-chant, sometimes
in unison, sometimes contrapuntally between sections of the
group.
The central performance area is lit only by a flaming lamp,
but the gorgeously clad characters in the drama to which the
group of men provide an accompaniment usually arrive on the
scene through a temple gateway, dramatically lit from behind.
The
story is of Rama’s trip to the forest with Shita to
seek a golden deer. Rawana, king of the demons, kidnaps Shita,
but Hanoman,the white monkey, come to her aid by telling Rama
what’s happened. The son of the demon king fires an
arrow (that turn into the snake) at Rama, but Rama calls on
Garuda, the bird God, to save him. The king of the monkeys,
Sugriwa, then arrives on the scene and the drama ends with
a fight between the monkeys and the demon, with the kecak
chorus dividing in support of the two sides. Rama is reunited
with his beloved Shita.
