PEREMBON

At the end of the fifties there were two dancers from the village of Singapadu, near Celuk, who saw that not every dancer could enact a role in every performance. There are remainders, by chance, but they are good dancers. Suppose those “wasted” figures are combined in a certain composition: Why not?

These two men, Pak Keredek and Pak Griya, then assembled those who were “wasted”, gave a role to each of them according to their ability and talent, and launched the idea for the story but let the details be developed by the dancers themselves. So a performance was born. Pak Keredek and Pak Griya titled it Perembon, derived from two Balinese words Para (a prefix, meaning plural) Imbuhan (the remainders, whatever is left).

Within a very short time people fell in love with this performance. It is really free, comical, adaptative, and responsive to any idea launched by the public during the show. No strict rule should be followed by the dancers since Perembon is a combination of a number of dancers from all sort of performances. The figure of aking in Perembon may be adapted by a Topeng dancer, who is not able to converse for the mask covers his entire face, or maybe an Arja dancer, who should only sing the difficult lyrics. The other dancers are different from from each other. Maybe the Arja’s princess has a Wayang Wong’s mother and two Legong’s friends and a Topeng attendant. But it is no exaggeration to say that Perembon is the most amusing performance to see.