In
the old days, watching arja performance maybe need an extra stamina. The
play lasted up to long after midnight, often until dawn.
The play flows from one scene to another with
the sweet sound of singing by the dancers. This dance drama is one of the
most artistic performing arts Bali had produced. Arja plays some Balinese
folklore as well as story of Javanese princes and princesses called Malat
or Panji. This dance drama form is a direct derivative of the older
gambuh play. Gambuh dancers utilized articulated voice of words, whereas
arja dancers are singing and conversing. This act of singing mostly done
while dancing or acting a role of a play.
Before the dancer appear, he or she would sing
and shakes the curtain for quite a while, seem like to test the patience
of the audience. And when he or she really appear on stage, it really a
kind of strike of voice and movement.
The music for arja called guntang or
geguntangan, a collection of simple percussion instruments made
of bamboo and bronze added by small drums. The sound of the instrument
is clear yet sometimes tranquil and meditative.
In the seventies arja declined in popularity,
mostly due to the growing popularity of other dance-drama forms like Sendratari
and Drama
Gong, the new dance dramas with gong kebyar
music.
Now we can see arja performances occasionally
in the festivals and on commissions by Balinese for rituals and other purposes
or by tourists. Like most of things in Bali, arja is also experiencing
new energy and creativity. Beside many plays performed these days, the
hundreds years old all male arja also revived.
