Trance and Dance in Bali Transcript

TRANCE AND DANCE IN BALI
Photography by Gregory Bateson and Jane Belo

Edited by Josef Bohmer
Music arranged by Colin McPhee
Written & narrated by Margaret Mead
Character Formation in Different Cultures: A Series

Produced by Gregory Bateson & Margaret Mead
With assistance from Committee for Research in Dementia Precox
Supported through the 33rd degree Scottish Rite, North Masonic Jurisdiction, Cambridge University,
The American Museum of Natural History,
Department of Child Study, Vassar College.
Records a performance of the Balinese ceremonial kris (dagger) dance-drama, which depicts the neverending struggle between witch (death-dealing) and dragon (life-protecting), as it was given in the village
of Pagoetan in the late 1930s. The dancers experience violent trance seizures, turn their krises against
their breasts without injury, and are restored to consciousness with incense and holy water. Narrated by
Margaret Mead against a background of Balinese music. From the Character Formation in Different
Cultures series. Produced by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. 1952 (anthropology)
Recommended reading from C2O collection:
Spies, Walter & de Zoete, Beryl (2002 [1938]). Dance & Drama in Bali. Singapore: Periplus. [Call No.:
791.319923 SPI Dan]
Data Skrip film

Koleksi Perpustakaan C 2 O
Jl. Dr. Cipto 20 Surabaya 60264 INDONESIA
e-mail: info@c2o-library.net
web: http://c2o-library.net
TIME
Screenshot
Notes
TEXT
Character Formation in Different
Cultures: A Series
Produced by Gregory Bateson & Margaret Mead
With assistance from Committee for Research in
Dementia Precox
Supported through the 33rd degree Scottish Rite,
North Masonic Jurisdiction, Cambridge
University,
The American Museum of Natural History,
Department of Child Study, Vassar College.
TRANCE AND DANCE IN BALI

TEXT
Trance occurs in Bali in many different forms.
One of the most spectacular is the Kris Dance in
which men and women turn their krisses
against their breasts, without injuring
themselves. One form of the Kris Dance
combines this religious practice with a Balinese
dramatic theme, the conflict between the witch
and the dragon. This story, which has many
versions, was given this way in the village of
Pagoetan in 1937-1939.
In this play, the witch, angered by the kings
refusal to marry her daughter, sends forth her
disciples to spread plague. The villagers wander
the road trying to escape the plague. There is a
struggle between the witch in a masked,
supernatural form, and the emissary of the king,
who fails to kill her, and is transformed into a
dragon. The followers of the dragon are thrown
into a deep trance by the witch, revived by the
dragon into a somnambulistic state, and turn
their krisses violently against themselves. The
performance ends with ceremonies for bringing
the actors out of trance.
The play begins outside the temple, to the
music of an orchestra.
Trance and Dance in Bali

02:13
The little disciples of the witch dance and

prepare to receive the witchs instructions.
02:38
This is the witch in all her supernatural

paraphernaliahairy legs, pendulous breasts,
long fingernails, but without the mask thatll
transform her into a supernatural figure. Beside
her, is her daughter, whos been rejected by the
king of the country. In revenge for the slight to
her daughter shes now training her little
novices to spread pestilence and death.
Kneeling in front of her, they answer her
instructions on how to spread plague.
They go off, and the next scene shows a
pregnant woman among a group of people
whove fled their plague-stricken village to
wander the road.
04:07
This is the birth scene, where the pregnant

woman, played by a man, gives birth to a child,
while the witches lurk around to steal the
newborn child, a doll, which is stolen by the
witch-child, tossed in the air, and returned dead
to its mourning relatives.
04:36
The villagers mourn for the dead child, putting

on a theatrical display of grief.
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The witcheswitch-child and witchlurk about,

and tease the mortals, to whom theyre not yet
quite visible.
04:55
As they become visible, the mortals chase the

witches. The witch child is caught and held by
the hair, a demeaning gesture.
05:13
In just a minute now youll see the witch in her

supernatural form at the gate of the temple,
attacked by the emissary of the king who failed
to conquer her.
She wears over her face a white cloththe cloths
in which the mother carries her baby.
And now coming down the temple steps, the
witch dances alone. The figures is both
frightening, and representing fear itself.
These are the frightening witches into which the
beautiful little girls of the bale have been
transformed.
Again the witch dances alone.

And heres the dragon, arrived to confront her.

As she represents death, he represents life.
They have a long ordered talk in ancient,
ecclesiastical Javanese, while she holds him by
his beard, and scolds him.
These are the dragons followers, falling to the

ground at the glance of the witch, up again
when she turns her back, down again when she
looks.
She flips through their ranks, runs away, and as
theyre back in trance, up they get again.
They rush to attack, but as she turns, her glance

forces them back, back, back. And she dances
and laughs, laughs, and then turns away,
indifferent.
This is slow motion: followers of the dragons
advance, their krisses raised in the air, ready for
the attack, but falling down again before her
glance.
Normal scene: the witch dances again, and then

two by two, they run up, and attack her. She
doesnt resistshes as limp as as a rag doll,
but overcome by her power, they fall, and lie in
a deep trance, on the ground.
And two more come up, fall down. Members of
the trance dance come and arrange them on the
ground, while another pair attack the witch.
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They lie arranged in two rows in deep trance,

whole bodies twitching.
And the dragon comes back to revive them,
walking between the rows, followed by his
priest, who sprinkles the holy water over them.
Revived, they go off stage, not out of trance, but

in a somnambulistic stage in which they come
back in, dancing.
The witch meanwhile has fallen into a deep
trance, and been carried away.
The dance in slow motion.
10:33
Here comes the women, also in a balian

formation. They do not attack the witch.
But as a sign is given by one of their number,
they suddenly go into a trance, and with
loosened her, trying to stick their krisses against
their breast, falling forward.
This one is struggling on the kris. In the

background you see the men also in trance, and
here in slow motion you see the women.

The fumes of the incense that is being carried

among them to come blend with their loosened
hair.
This old woman has said that shell not go in

trance. But when others begin to turn their
krisses against themselves, she joins them. If
anyone becomes too violent they are disarmed.
There are frequent periods like this of turning

and waiting, then someone gives a violent
scream and they again turn their krisses on
themselves.
The priest of the dragon moves among them,
sprinkling them with the holy water.
Now at normal pace, you see the man, bending

their krisses against themselves, and unlike the
women, often fall into the ground.
See how that kris is bent?
No one gets hurt. If anyone gets hurt, they say
the trance is not real.
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A male trancer is being carried off to the temple,

in a stiff epileptic state.
Another has been disarmed.
A third puts his head into the dragons mouth,

and the dragon holds him by the hair to come.
Another falls to the ground in a particularly
violent state.
Another trancer is being carried into the temple
court.
And another
In slow motion again you see the locals

contorted in seeming agony on the face of his
trance.
14:35
TEXT
The theatrical part of the performance is over,
as one by one, the trancers have fallen into a
rigid, limp, or convulsive state of
unconsciousness and been carried into the
temple courtyard, where they will be brought
out of trance.

Inside the temple the people arrange the

trancers in group to be brought out of trance.
Here a group of boystrancers lying along the
wall in deep shadowis given incense and the
holy water.
They pass the holy water on their chest.
15:27
This is the old woman who said she wouldnt go

in trance today, lying now in deep trance.
Another woman is being brought to herself by

having her hair done up.
15:44
This one is still in deep trance and children with

anxious faces watch from the background.
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16:09
The trancers bury their faces in the fumes of the

incense and slowly come out of trance.
Heres the old woman again, unwilling to come

back to herself, remembering her dances.
17:09
And finally the priest brings special offerings to

the spirit that possesses her, to persuade it to
leave her body.
The priest made the offerings of flowers and rice
on the ground, while she continues to dance. At
last, she holds out her hand to the holy water
as a sign that shes willing to come out of
trance.
A dog comes and eats the offerings being

presented.
10

The old woman rises, still half-dazed, and walks

over to where the closing ceremony is being
held, where the dragon man behind the mask,
the principal actors in the play, come for a final
ritual offering before the ceremony is ended.
A chicken is brought, blessed for the offering, by
the priest of the dragon.
The white-haired old man on his right plays the

front leg of the dragon.
The chicken is offered.
20:03
This black-haired man is the man who plays the

witch, and has been lying in deep cataleptic
trance.
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11

He sits among the offerings, not yet quite out of

trance. He breathes in the incense, takes the
holy water, and sprinkles the old man who
plays the front leg of the dragon.
The ritual is finished. Here we see the old man

just coming out of trance, not yet quite himself.
The play is over but it will be given again and
again as the Balinese reenact the struggle
between fear and death and life-protecting in
ritual.
TEXT
THE END
Publications:
BALINESE CHARACTER
By Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead
GROWTH AND CULTURE
By Margaret Mead and Francis Macgregor
HOUSE IN BALI by Colin McPhe
BARONG AND RANGDA by Jane Belo
12


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TRANCE AND DANCE IN BALI

Photography by Gregory Bateson and Jane Belo

Character Formation in Different Cultures: A Series

Data Skrip film