Kecak fire dance
Trip Start
Jun 22, 2012
1
25
39
Trip End
Jul 17, 2012
Where I stayed
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Kecak is of the classical dance style and is performed by over 100 dancers and singers. The music is unique to this performance for there are no musical instruments. Besides some hand clapping, the sounds are the human voice chanting that rises to crescendo as fires burn around and monsters appear from the darkness to perform their part in the story.
Kecak tells the Ramayana story of Prince Rama on a quest to rescue his kidnapped wife, Sita, with the help of the monkey army.
I’ve uploaded all of my images for those who have been to this performance to remind you of the dance.
Despite having a front row seat, using my long lens trying to capture the dancers detail like their hand and feet movement was more than challenging with the backlighting and candles flickering in the foreground. Even with my ISO set at 6,400, using 1/50 sec and having the benefit of a tripod, my excellent travel 18 - 200 mm lens is not exactly a fast lens for low light conditions especially if there is performers movement as well.
The 3 short videos (42, 58 and 17 secs) give you the constant and unique chanting by the male performers.
