| Abstract [eng] |
This paper examines the Balinese cultural dance, Barong–Kris, focusing on the trance portion of the dance that is performed during a ritual, as documented in „Trance Dance in Bali“ by visual anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. In this analysis, the application of Algirdas Julius Greimas gestural semiotics is central to interpreting what is being said by this undefined bodily expression, when people who are not in control of their own bodies are possessed by gods and demons - this becomes a dance not of people, but of supernatural beings. The meanings acquired move away from the meanings of cultural and structured choreography. A unified ritual body is created, in which we see distorted faces, spasmodically twitching bodies that move uncontrollably but rhythmically in all directions, and sometimes freeze completely motionless. During the ritual, the previous order is destroyed, a return to the beginning of time takes place, and new vital powers are awakened. |
