Pendet, a Dance from Bali

Pendet is the presentation of an offering in theform of a ritual dance. Unlike the exhibition dances that demand arduous training, Pendet may be danced by everyone: male and female pemangkus, women and girls of the village. It is taught simply by imitation and is seldom practiced in the banjars. Younger girls follow the movements of the elder women who recognize their responsibility in setting a good example. Proficiency comes with age, and often, t is the grandmothers who possess the most Man of the grouli. As a religious daqce, Pendet is usually performed during temple ceremonies.

All dancers carry in their right hand a small offering of incense, cakes, water vessels, or flower formations set in palm leaf With these they dance from shrine to shrine within the temple. Pendet, thus, may be performed as a serial and continue intermittently throughoin,the day and late into the night during temple feasts.

In 1968, a huge religious procession in Tabanan produced many versions of Pendet. One was danced by a member of the household, who presented the family's offerings in a slow Pendet before the approaching wave of thousands of people. In larger villages, a selected group of young girls, bare-shouldered and formally dressed in wraps of gold cloth, carried silver bowls of flowers as they danced a more elaborate Pendet, choreographed in interweaving rows and files (see page 103). When the procession settled before a small temple, old women dressed in ordinary clothes began to dance still another form of Pendet. They carried no offerings but moved feverishly as if possessed by the music.

Recently, Pendet was introduced to open the Legong. Here, the young girls are accomplished members of a dance troupe, and their movements are coordinated and exact. Toward the finish of the dance, the girls make praying gestures and throw flowers to the audience-a welcome and blessing to the public..