Kecak
A Kecak dance being performed at Uluwatu, in Bali
A Kecak dance being perfomed at Kolese Kanisius, Jakarta
Kecak (pronounced: /‘ke.tʃak/, roughly “KEH-chahk”, alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting “cak” and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.[1]
Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the “modern art-culture system”[2] in which, “the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making ‘art’ which was once embedded in the culture as a while, into a separate entity.”[3] Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.
Performer, choreographer, and scholar I Wayan Dibia cites a contrasting theory that the Balinese where already developing the form when Spies arrived on the island.[4] For example, well-known dancer I Limbak had incorporated Baris movements into the cak leader role during the 1920s. “Spies liked this innovation,” and it suggested that Limbak, “devise a spectacle based on the Ramayana,” accompanied by cak chorus rather than gamelan, as would have been usual.[1]
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In popular culture
Film
- Video of a kecak performance is prominently featured in Ron Fricke’s 1992 film Baraka.
- A kecak chant can be heard in Federico Fellini’s classic 1969 film Satyricon. It was probably sampled from David Lewiston’s 1969 LP of Balinese music entitled Golden Rain, released on the Nonesuch Explorer Series.
- Kecak chanting is incorporated into the soundtrack for the Japanese anmiated film Akira, which also uses the Indonesian gamelan prominently.
- A Kecak-style dance and chant can be seen in the fantasy portion of Tarsem Singh’s film The Fall (2006), in which the Balinese actors incorporated words to describe the map being drawn.
- The chant is heard during a scene in the Coen Brothers‘ film Blood Simple.
- A Kecak chant is shown for a few minutes close to the end of the erotic French drama Emmanuelle 2 (1975), when the main characters go to Bali.
Pop music
- A sample of Kecak chanting kicks off The Pop Group’s 1980 album For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
- Mike Patton performs a Kecak-like chant that is incorporated in the song “Goodbye Sober Day” on the 1999 Mr. Bungle album California. Patton had previously performed a similar passage of rhythmic chanting in the Faith No More song “Got That Feeling,” from their 1997 Album of the Year.
- A sort of Kecak chant can be heard in Jade Warrior’s Floating World side-B album, called simply “Monkey Chant”. It has been mixed including a Jimi Hendrix-like guitar solo (played by David Duhig).
- A song from the debut album by musical group Hercules and Love Affair has an intro in the style of Kecak chanting.
TV
- A Kecak chant is played during the closing credits of the Asian-influenced show Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- A Kecak dance is performed in a Season 2 episode of MTV’s Wildboyz, with Chris Pontius and Steve-O eagerly participating in the ritual during their stay in Indonesia. Here it is referred to as a “Sardono Kecak”.
Video game
- Kecak chanting forms the basis of the song “The Oracle” in the Super NES video game Secret of Mana.
- Kecak chanting is featured in the song “Kecak” in the Japanese music video game beatmania IIDX 11 – IIDX RED. Songwriter John Robinson got inspiration for this song from the kecak dance.
- Kecak is a mini-game in Capcom’s Breath of Fire IV video game for PlayStation. The player mimics the chants by timing button presses corresponding to the screen.
Bibliography
- Kecak from Bali. Produced by David Lewiston, 1990. One compact disc (duration 44:53) with notes and libretto by Fred B. Eiseman and David Lewiston. 9019. As of 1991 this was the only commercial release outside Bali which features only and a complete performance of kecak[5].
- I Wayan Dibia, Kecak: the vocal chant of Bali. Denpasar: Hartanto Art Books, 1996. vi + 83pp. Tables, photos, index. ISBN 979 95045 4 6. “This little book covers all the elements of Kecak”[4]
