Bali Echo Magazine Edition 52 | Ni Ketut Cenik Legendary Dancer Of Bali

he has lived through the eras of Dutch colonization, Japanese occupation into the current reformation period of Indonesian history. She acknowledges that these days there are professional dancers and artists, art schools and academic institutions where college students
study the various disciplines of visual and performing arts.

But she also remembers that in the past the study of dance, was an activity that took place in the banjar or even in the rice fields surrounding the village, and the aim of performing was sometimes as an offering to the gods and at other times simply for the pure pleasure of social interaction. These days one can be described as a professional performer, and earn one's living from performing. A professional dancer will even be considered to have a position of status and prestige in the community, and "art "is understood to have its own set of criteria, values and these days it even has a fixed price. Cenik does not get involved in all these new-fangled ideas about art and artists, nor does she shrink away from these new phenomena. She herself has been awarded many prizes and awards in recognition floor her service to the arts, including the Wijaya Kusuma Award in 1982, Dharma Kusuma Madia award in 1986, and the Dharma Kusuma in 1988. Her knowledge of Balinese dance spans many decades and several genres of the vast Balinese repertoire of dance and theatre. She studied and performed the classical dance theatre Gambuh as well as many of the Legong Keraton dances. She has mastered the entire range of roles in the Balinese ance-opera Arja. Acknowledged widely as being an excellent teacher of dance, Cenik is considered to be one of the few expert teachers of the

sacred processional dance Rejang performed by women and young girls during temple ceremonies in Bali. She has taught dance all over Bali in villages as far-flung as Culik (Karangasem), Peliatan, Palasari, Tampaksiring and Tegenungan. Cenik now prefers to focus on her own artistic endeavors, personal growth and development, thereby ensuring a constant involvement in the creative process. She continues to perform with enthusiasm and spirit, and never just "goes through the motions" of the dances. "These days, dancers are more focused on being beautiful, well-costumed, elaborately made-up. They don't focus on performing well!" she says in surprise at the current situation. "Now there are lots of dance schools, arts academies, universities and institutions, but there are very few good dancers in Bali" she commented way back in 1995 when she

performed joged Pingitan Calonarang at the College of Indonesian Art (STSI), Denpasar during the Legong Festival organized by the Walter Spies Foundation.

Her back-stage comments of six years ago remain valid today, even though she was not actually making the comments to anyone in particular at the time. She was neither criticizing nor complanning - rather, it seemed as if she was just talking to herself, expressing her wonder and surprise that things could be like that in Bali of all places. Cenik has been dancing since she was fifteen years old. When she started to study dance, her fellow students all went on stage a long time before she did. She was one of the last to be permitted to perform in public. As a child, she was even thought of as having no talent as a dancer. Her parents preferred that she carry out her duties as a shepherdess for the family's cows. Her family was very poor, and she was kept very busy gathering the grass and hay needed for feeding the animals. She didn't have much time to even think about the normal pleasures of playing children's games, let alone the luxury of actually practicing dance. Born in the village of Batuan which is renowned for various arts such as painting and dance, it was natural that Cenik had plenty of opportunities to watch dance practices, even though they were happening far off in the distance and she was busy minding the cattle. It's also no surprise that Cenik longed to dance. Although her name "cenik" means "small", Cenik never behaved in a small way!.

She had a rebellious character, arid always revolted against restriction or control in any form it appeared. Even as a young girl, she was openly critical of the dance teachers in Batuan, and because of her "attitude" she never

lasted long with any of the dance teachers. Eventually they all refused to teach her, and she ended up studying dance on her own. "So now, who should l acknowledge as my teacher?" is her response to the question of who in fact was her dance teacher. Cenik is now almost eighty years old, but her age does not slow her down as a performer. She can still perform a full-length Joged Pingitan for 50 minutes or more. She has the physical stamina to perform for a long time,and
her performances are always breath-taking and riveting. The audience is always hushed when she is on stage. "I'm poor and I'm small!" she exclaims with a laugh, recalling her childhood, and pointing out that she never imagined that she would end up being a dancer. Cenik is famous for the dance called Joged Pingitan which is a sub-genre of the legong keraton group of dances. Joged Pingitan uses the same vocabulary of movements as can be found in legong keraton but Cenik transformed the chance by introducing a story into the performance, and thus it developed. into the Joged Pingitan we know today. The most popular story. used in Joged Pingitan is that of Calonarang. The entire performance has a wide range of characters and the amazing thing is that Cenik can transform herself so quickly and easily from one character to another. It may be difficult to believe that one dancer can perform. this story on her own, considering that the story goes like this: In the ancient kingdom of Dirah, Sisya