The Legong Dance

The word “Legong” is from the word “leg” mean elastic or elegance and the word “gong” mean the music, so the Legong is a dance which represent the epitomy of grace and feminity. Originally, music for legong accompaniment is Gamelan Pelegongan. It’s a kind of percussion instruments with bronze keys, cymbals, and drums, although it can also accompanied by gamelan gong kebyar, the modern version of Balinese gamelan. The Legong Dance has a very complex movement. The most memerizing movement is the hands. As the arms move up and about, the fingers are doing a dance of their own. At the same time, they can make individual pairs of fingers flutter simultaneously and their eyes are darting left to right.

The Legong Dancer are selected among little girls in the village for their suppleness and beauty. The dancers start performing for public at a very early age. They will go on performing legong until the age of puberty. Exellent legong dancers are respected as master dancers at older age.

The Legong dance are performed in a stage called Kalangan, just like other Balinese dance and dramas. Kalangan is an open space stage with a kind of half circle tribune for spectators. Completed with a big tree, usually an enormous banyan tree which overshadow the stage. The backdrops are an elevated beautiful carved Candi Bentar gate, where the dancers emerge.

Some village in Central and Southern Bali such as Peliatan, Ubud, Saba, Bedulu, Sukawati, Binoh and Karambitan are popular as the home of the Legong. These villages posses long Legong traditions, and most of them still own high quality legong groups today.