balinese dance at the acropolis
Day 21: On a Saturday night in Athens, what better to do than to nab a cheap seat in the gods at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus at the Acropolis?
The beautifully-restored theatre, which seats around 4500, is closed to the public during regular tours of the Acropolis and the only way to fully experience the theatre is to see a show there.
As part of the Athens Festival, a Balinese Dance Troupe from Bali’s Gianyar province was in town for two nights giving performances of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.
With the Greek surtitles helping us to make out the names of some of the characters who entered, it was a great and authentic performance with an extremely expressionistic narrator which was notable for the ear-splitting demonic screams when the evil demon Rama was confronted by Hanoman, the monkey king.
The performance concluded with the crowd-pleasing Kecak dance in which the entire ensemble including dance performers and the orchestra joined to produce a mesmerising display of chanting and rhythmic movement.
As lovers of Indonesia and Bali, it was a real stroke of luck that we were able to see Balinese dance in Greece.
Posted: July 18th, 2007 by andrew under Greece, Athens, Acropolis, Dance, Bali.
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