StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Balinese Trance Performances - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Gilbert Rouget and Brunhilde Biebuyck explain that Trance is a temporary state of consciousness, or, as the word itself indicates, it is transitory. One leaves one's usual state when one enters into trance, and at the end of a certain period of time, the duration of which varies considerably from case to case, one returns to one's previous state…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.1% of users find it useful
Balinese Trance Performances
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Balinese Trance Performances"

Download file to see previous pages

But in the view of the vast majority of other traditions, speech, as the mode of communication of ordinary reality, is singularly unsuited for this purpose. It is but a hardly audible knock on the very thick wall separating humans from the spirit realm. In fact, humans have to make a truly heroic effort to be noticed on the other side. Merely talking, falling into a worshipful mood, feeling "transcendent," "numinous, or "oceanic," or whatever other pompous words are listed in the dictionary, simply will not do.

Instead humans, if they have the urgent necessity or desire to squeeze through the chinks in the wall, need to change the very functioning of their bodies in the most radical way. The term summarizing these changes is religious trance, one of a large group of altered state of consciousness of which humans are capable. It is termed religious because observation shows that it is the one occurring in religious context, that is, when contact is made with the alternate, the sacred, reality." (9) Trance when used in the context of highly spiritual, religious and exotic forms of dance or dance drama like Balinese Trance Performance relates t.

igious and exotic forms of dance or dance drama like Balinese Trance Performance relates to a scenario where the performer gets into an altered state of thinking where he/she engages with his/her environment in a highly imaginative and structurally organized engagement. This is the result of sustained involvement of the performer with the performance and the character of the performance whereby there is an easy movement between the performer and the character in terms of personality and mental disposition.

Richard Schechner mentions in his work that even naturalistic actors affirm that something happens to them psychologically and physiologically during a performance. A two way process unfolds simultaneously. The first is the one shaped by author and director, the play and the mise-en-scene. But just as important is the more evanescent process of the performer. The play and mise-en-scene have a quality of having-been-lived, while the performance has the quality of living now. The play will be completed only if the performers are able to carry through the process they start afresh each night.

That process cannot be rehearsed. (46) It is said about Balinese Trance performance that once the performer gets into the shoes of the character, there is total absorption of the personality of the character in terms of body movements, facial expressions and speech. It is as if there is a generation of extraordinary amount of energy in the body of the performer in the form of an outside being entering the body and the soul in the form of an Angel, Demon or other higher Spirits and Deities.

Jane Belo in his work Trance in Bali, elucidates in the context of Balinese trance performances that if human beings went into states of trance, they were believed to be entered by

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Balinese Trance Performances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
Balinese Trance Performances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1509228-balinese-trance-performances
(Balinese Trance Performances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
Balinese Trance Performances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1509228-balinese-trance-performances.
“Balinese Trance Performances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1509228-balinese-trance-performances.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Balinese Trance Performances

Stress Management in Organization

The essay "Stress Management in Organization" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues and peculiarities concerning stress management in an organization.... nbsp;The author added a general introduction to the present-day problem of workplace stress.... hellip; Definition of stress also has been added to understand that what is stress is all about....
18 Pages (4500 words) Essay

A Five Forces Analysis of Fulham FC

This paper "A Five Forces Analysis of Fulham FC" sheds light on the Fulham Football Club which has been a well-known club since the last decade or so.... The club came in the limelight when it was bought by an Egyptian businessman Mohammad Al-Fayed in 1997.... hellip; To analyze an organization's business environment in which it operates, many different techniques are used and of all those techniques, Michael Porter's five forces analysis is a very renowned technique....
7 Pages (1750 words) Assignment

Steve Reich

Steve Reich has formal school training through the Juilliard School of Music and further pursued higher education in music from the Mills College.... It was noted that he took piano lessons when he was young but his inspiration to further his musical craft reportedly came from… He also studied formally in other universities, as abovementioned. 5....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Creating Narrative Without Text

This paper explores theories expounded by Jerzy Grotowski, Antonin Artaud and Merce Cunningham.... nbsp; Literary criticism, narrative, is shaped by the cultural, economic and political spheres of the greater community.... nbsp; For most people, the narrative is thought to be a matter of text or words....
11 Pages (2750 words) Assignment

Public Cultural Event: My Visit to Dubai

The author of the essay "Public Cultural Event" tells about his/her visit to Dubai last year which was one of the most vivid memories, owing to his/her participation in the city's world-wide popular cultural event that energized and entertained the author throughout its duration of one month.... nbsp; … Even if you're not a shopping or entertainment enthusiast, the Dubai Shopping Festival is still the place to be, owing to the Dubai Marathon that is always scheduled during the festival....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Rangda Mask

In South Bali, the Rangda is quite common as a part of celebrations, theater performances or dances such as the Barong, Wayang, Legong and many others.... This ritual performance has a great impact on its audience and some of them go into a trance.... The paper “The Rangda Mask” analyzes the Rangda, the dramatic representation of the underworld Goddess Durga, for the balinese population.... According to the ancient balinese, the word 'Rangda' means 'Widow' and depicts a fearsome appearance comprising of a long fiery tongue....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Is the Use of Performance-enhancing Drugs in Sports Morally Permissible

The paper "Is the Use of Performance-enhancing Drugs in Sports Morally Permissible?... focuses on the moral aspects of performance-enhancing drugs to achieve excellent performance in sports.... People believe that the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports is not morally right and thus, needs banning....
6 Pages (1500 words) Coursework

A Close Relationship between Alcohol, Drugs, and Mental Health

… IntroductionThere is considered to be a close-relationship between alcohol, drugs and mental health.... Infact it is mostly claimed that superfluous intake of alcohol and drug twofold the mental health problem.... After caffeine alcohol is the second most IntroductionThere is considered to be a close-relationship between alcohol, drugs and mental health....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us