Joged Bumbung

The joged Bumbung is a secular dance highly popular in Balinese villages. The joged dancer are young girls, who usually wear a simple kebaya shirt, a flower head-dress, and a long shawl wrapped around the waist. Some groups, thought, dress the girls in new flashy costumes to better attract the spectators attention. The music is made with bumbung bamboo instruments, hence the name joged bumbung given to the dance. the orchestra is called gegerantangan, from the name of the principal instrument, the gerantang.
The joged dance is thought to have very ancient origins it became popular again at the beginning of this century. It is usually performanced at harvest time, when the peasantry is rejoicing. Joged is then performanced at the banjar halls or in the open.
The dance begins with the girl dancer. She looks for a male partner from the crowd, her long shawl in hand, she goes among the spectator and invites a pengibing by pointing at him with her fan, or touching him at the waist. He enters the stage amid the hoots and shouts of the crowd. The pengibing is expected to be as good at this seducing dance as the joged girl. The better he is the louder the cheers and roar of the crowd. He may try to pinch her, dance hip to hip with her, or behave like an upset lover and try to hit her. Both the joged and the pengibing are thus "playing", as if performancing a story. Hence the role of the facial expressions. If the pengibing is not up to the expectations of the spectators, they will jeer at him, shouting at him to leave the stage. Thus it is not an easy job to be a good joged dancer. The girls should cast aside all shyness if they want at be successful. Some villanges which were famous for their joged dancers cannot find girl to fill the joged slots and have to disband their group.
Beside the joged bumbung, there are other kinds of joged, the joged gebiog, adar, gandrung, legong and pingitan. Some concidered sacred.