The Gracious Legong Dance

The Gracious Legong Dance

This Bali dance of Legong (balih-balihan dance) is without any doubt the most gracious of all the dances. The dance is accompanied by the beautiful sounds of the gamelan.
The Legong dancers are often young girls around 8 to 10 years old and selected from the village for their beauty and suppleness.
They will perform the legong till puberty and then start dancing other types of traditional Bali dances.The Legong Keraton is performed by three dancers, two of them are the Legongs and the other is known as Condong.

The Legons are wearing identical costumes with tightly bound gold brocades and their faces are made up with detail to the eyebrows and their hair decorated with beautiful frangipani flowers.
Their movements are choreographed in detail with the twisting of the fingers, hands, feet and facial expression. This Bali dance is worth watching.
The Legong Kraton tells the story of a king, who kidnaps a maiden called Rangkesari. Her brother begs the king to let her free rather than to go to war.
The king ignores his begging and is on his way to the battleground when he meets a bird that brings ill omens. He ignores the bird and continues to meet Rangkesari’s brother on the battleground, who kills him.