Kecak Fire & Trance Dance – Ubud

A classical “monkey chant” dance, known as Kecak Dance, that all of dancers are coming from Desa Pekraman Taman Kaja. With all of great talents, present the original style of kecak that distinguish from others. Based on the story of Ramayana epic, we will bring you in a full imagination of classical and original kecak dance. Perform regularly every Wednesday and Saturday at Pura Dalem Taman .

Kecak Dance
The Kecak is a “monkey chant” based, again, on the Ramayana epic. In addition, however, the Kecak Fire & Trance Dance also borrows certain themes of the sanghyang exorcism, the Kecak Dance was created in the 1930s.

The performance takes place in the courtyard of the Pura Dalem temple where the audience sit on either side of the courtyard. There is a lone statue with candles standing in the middle of the courtyard. A man in a sarong and udeng enters and lights the candles. Then, 100 men of the gamelan orchestra enter and sit around the statue, which burns brightly. The men wear checkered sarongs but no udeng and begin to chant and sing and raise their arms towards the “fire.” This is first part of the performance. The amazing thing is, there is no instrument used throughout the entire performance: only the gamelan orchestra of men provide the music through their singing and chanting while they sit, stand and so forth.

A familiar scene ensues (I had seen the Legong Dance & Ramayana performance the night before) when the beautiful Princess Sita and her companions enter the courtyard. The story of the Ramayana unfolds but this time, the women dance around the fire and step carefully in and out of the inner circle of the gamelan orchestra. See Legong Dance & Ramayana for the story and performance. The Ramayana epic takes up half of the performance.

Fire & Trance Dance
There is a break and metallic barriers are set up around the courtyard, separating the courtyard from the audience. A pile of coconut shells are placed in the middle of the enclosed courtyard and lit on fire. This is where the Sanghyang exorcism trance dance comes in. The particular sanghyang in this performance is the sanghyang djaran.Djaran means “horse.” A shirtless man holding a horse head (not real) enters and dances around.

In a state of trance, the horse man begins to dance and kick the burning pile of coconuts around. He kicks them so hard that they fly into the metal barriers. When I saw this performance, some of the burning coconuts flew over the barriers and next to me and some kids. This is what I meant by the “dangers” of seeing the Fire & Trance Dance! With the burning pile now all scattered, the man in a trance walks over the burning coconuts. The Fire & Trance Dance ends with the burning coconuts extinguished and the performer sitting on a step in the temple away from the rubble with his feet out to cool them off.

The Kecak Fire & Trance Dance seemed a bit more authentic than the Legong performance. There were no instruments – only men singing and chanting and the Fire & Trance Dance was an awesome experience and performance to watch.

Kecak Fire & Trance Dance
By Taman Kaja Community

• Ticket Price IDR 75.000 / person
• Place : Pura Dalem Taman Kaja UBUD
• Every : Wednesday & Saturday
• Time 7.30pm
• Phone: +62(361) 970508
• For Booking you can buy ticket at the locations directly
• Please notice, that the dance performance ticket price can change at any time without prior notice.