Pendet Dance is a traditional Balinese dance creation that was very popular in the 1970s to 1980s. At that time there were not many modern dances coming from outside of the island and of course there were no online social media platform that brought all kind of dance creations from around the world to the mind of local people.
According to some sources, Pendet Dance is a creative dance created by dance maestros from Bali named I Wayan Rindi and Ni Ketut Reneng in 1950s. It was developed from a ritual dance called “Pendet Dewa”, a dance of worship performed at temples, intended as a form of welcome for the arrival of God. At that time, in a performance, Pendet Dance featured four dancers. In 1961, I Wayan Beratha increased the number of dancers to five as we often see today.
Pendet Dewa Dance is a sacred dance (tari wali) which is part of a ceremony (bebali) at temples or family sanctuaries. The ceremony is a form of gratitude, respect, welcome to the God and worship Him who dwell in the temple during the ceremony. The dance is usually performed in the temple central courtyard (jaba tengah) to the accompaniment of gamelan music gong kebyar and gamelan gong semar pegulingan. The dancers wear traditional Balinese clothes and carry bowls containing offerings in the form of flowers, coins, incense and food of daily consumption.
The very dynamic movement of the dance is formed from the cultivation of the tempo of the accompanying music and the varied movements that influence each other. Slow tempo is found in right and left agem movements, luk nerudut, luk nagasatru, and sitting sineba followed by flower sowing movements. Tempo is seen in the motion of ‘ngumbang’ or walking in place followed by a change in the direction of the face. The fast tempo is seen in the twisting, squeezing, slipping, and back and forth motion of the flower sowing.
The developed Pendet Dance is taken from the standards of the Pendet Dewa dance movement or the original Pendet Dance without losing the religious, sacred, and beautiful values of the dance. I Wayan Rindi and his friend Ni Ketut Reneng succeeded in incorporating elements of the Pendet Dewa Dance into the Pendet Dance which is popular to this day.
When performing Pendet Dewa Dance, the dancers use religious ceremonial makeup and ceremonial clothes. Each dancer brings containers of holy water or sangku, cups, jugs, and other equipment. Meanwhile when performing the new Pendet Dance, dancers bring silver bowls filled with flowers. At the end of the dance performance, flowers in the bowl will be sprinkled to the audience as a welcome gesture. Therefore, the Pendet Dance is often performed to welcome guests.