Uluwatu Temple in Bali - Watch the traditional Balinese Kacha dance performance

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📍 Uluwatu Temple, Uluwatu, Bali Island
📸 09 Nov, 2023

After introducing the Uluwatu Temple in the last post, this time let’s talk about the Kacha dance performance.

The story of the Kacha dance performance can be simply put as follows: the Monkey King rescues the princess from the bad guys and then they eliminate the bad guys together. This dance is said to be adapted from the traditional exorcism ritual of Bali. The highlight is that it uses human voice to imitate
During the performance of Gamelan music, a team of performers continuously uttered the rhythmic sounds of "Cak! Cak! Cak!" or "Keh-Chak" to represent the monkey's calls. Another highlight is the scene where the monkey looks at the performers breaking out of the fire surrounding him.

Let me first talk about my personal interests and background: I would fall asleep while watching Cantonese opera, Noh opera, etc. Basically, I just can’t understand anything about art.

My impressions of this performance are:
👾 As always, I don’t understand it, but I feel like it’s worth a try.

👾 The whole performance was actually quite good, with a complete story structure and some interactive parts with the audience. For example, the host would chat with the audience, and the Monkey King's performance was not limited to the stage, but he would also walk into the audience seats and climb on top of the pillars in the venue.

👾 In addition to the above interactivity, my personal favorite part is the performance of breaking through the fire. The performer kicks away and stomps on the flames with his ankles. The picture goes dark after a while, and I can't help but applaud.

👾 The best time to watch the Kacha dance is at sunset, which is the 6 o'clock show. Therefore, it is more difficult to buy tickets. If you think that the 6 o'clock show is not possible, it is best to buy tickets early.

👾 You can't see the performance at sunset, the performance at 7 o'clock in the dark is also a different flavor, the mysterious feeling in the dark and the fire in the dark are also

👾 The theater is like a barrier. From the entrance to the end, no monkeys came in. There were only performers who played the Monkey King. If you are not sitting at the side of the theater, there are people around you. It is basically safe and you can take pictures with your phone camera without worry.

👾 There is no designated seating in the theater. Because of the interactive nature of the show, I think it doesn’t matter where you sit. After all, most of the performance is on the stage. If you want to see the performance closer, sit in the front row. If you want to see the monkey king running by, you can sit on the left and right sides of the middle row, or in the two highest corners of the theater. The two highest corners of the theater are also suitable for friends who want to watch the sunset and the performance at the same time, but you need to pay attention to whether there are monkeys around.

👾 When the show is over, you can take photos with your favorite performers. It's no surprise that the Monkey King was the one that most people rushed over to and competed to take photos with. If you want to take a photo, it’s best to sit near the stage so you can rush up there right after the show.

Finally, I would like to share a rather ironic thing. They think white-haired monkeys are more sacred because of their thin backs, so they keep them in cages for tourists to watch. Actually, from the perspective of tourists, or at least us, we feel that the white-haired monkeys are so pitiful. They can only stay in a cage with limited space and watch ordinary monkeys outside the cage running and jumping freely, just because they look different from most monkeys...

#Bali#Travel#KecakDance#KecakDance#UluwatuTemple#UluwatuTemple