Legong Dance Bali

Legong is a form Balinese Dance that's refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated step, expressive gestures and facial expressions accompanied by gamelan. Traditionally, the dancers are often as young as eight or nine years olds and older than her early teens. the servant (condong) who dances a prelude, and two legong, identically costumed in gliterred cloth and wearing frangipani-crown.

The Legongs are identically dressed in tightly bound gold brocade, so tightly they encased that it’s something of a mystery how they manage to move with such agility and speed. Their faces are elaborately made up, their eyebrows plucked and repainted

The most popular of Legongs is the Legong Kraton 'Legong of the Palace'. Formerly, the dance was patronized by local kings and held in a residence of the royal family of the village.

The highly stylized Legong Kraton enacts a drama of a most purified and abstract kind. The story is performed by three dancers: a female attendant of the court and two identically dressed legongs who adopt the roles of royal persons. The suggestive themes of the magnificent gamelan orchestra and the minds of the audience conjure up imaginary changes of scene.

Legong is always danced at public festivals. Excepts from Legong dance dramas which are put on for tourists. The legong dance is culturally emblematic.

Balinese dance is inseparable from religion. A small offering of food and flowers must precede even dances for tourists. Before performing, many dancers pray at their family shrines, appealing for holy "taksu" (inspiration) from the gods. In this rural tradition, the people say that peace and harmony depend on protection by the gods and ancestors.