LEGONG DANCE ( BALI )

Legong is a classical Balinese dance group that has pembendaharaan very complex motion tied with percussion accompaniment structures said to be the influence of Gambuh. The word comes from the word Legong "leg" which means a flexible dance or flexible and "gong" which means the gamelan. "Dance" thus implies a bound dance (especially aksentuasinya) by the accompanying gamelan. Gamelan is used to accompany dance called Gamelan Semar legong Pagulingan.

Dance developed in the royal courts Bali in the 19th century the second half. It is said that the idea started from a prince of Sukawati, who in a dream ill see two girls dancing gracefully accompanied by a beautiful gamelan. When the prince recovered from his illness, his dream was manifested in the repertoire of dances with a full gamelan.

In accordance with the onset, the standard legong dancers are two girls who have not had a period, danced in the moonlight in the palace yard. Both dancers, called legong, always equipped with a fan-assisted techniques. In some there is a dance legong additional dancers, called biased, which is not equipped with a fan.

Tarinya structures generally consist of papeson, pangawak, pengecet, and pakaad.

In the times, legong had lost popularity in the early 20th century by the rise of Kebyar form from northern Bali. Revitalization efforts began only since the late 1960s, by digging back to the reconstruction of old documents.