JOGED - A FUN DANCE ( 2 )

Pengibing are attracted to dance, not just because they like it, but also because they are attracted by the charms of the joged. It is not unusual for one or two of the more adventurous young men to try to move his hips so he can touch the joged's hips, or even to steal a quick kiss. The more beautiful a joged dancer is, the greater the number of men volunteering!

Joged has a long history. In the kingdom era, early 19th century in Bali, the image of joged dancers was not very good. A performance was often arranged by kings to entertain their guests and the dancers were often low status women who could do little to object when asked by the king to please guests, whether romantically, sexually or in any other way.

Unfortunately, the negative image of joged dancers continues until the present time. After the reformation era, joged became a wild performance in terms of its hip shaking and erotic movements.

The distribution of a VCD of pornographic jogged, filmed using an amateur video in 2002, made the negative images of joged even worse. In this and in following years, images of joged caused public controversy; many people liked to watch a 'wild joged', while others accused it of not being in accordance with moral values.

Joged had usually been performed in the annual Bali Arts Festival but, as a consequence of the joged porn VCD, the performance disappeared from the 2004 Bali Arts Festival. Interestingly, at the national level, issues of erotic gyrations of the young dangdut singer Inul Daratista also sparked controversy, but it has been allowed and accepted by the dominant view as a type of performing art.

Ideas to promote joged came up and were welcomed as long as the dance developed without any tendency to sensual or sexual movement. A 'Festival ngibing' was held to improve the politeness and dancing ability of spectators when invited to dance. Additionally, the aesthetic aspect of the dance was emphasised.

After some efforts to minimise wild aspects of joged, it reappeared in the Bali Arts Festival 2005. As expected, it was in a more polite form though the tendency to the hot shaking hips and kiss-stealing has not disappeared at all.
Joged has often been performed to entertain a group of tourists with the main aim of creating a cheerful and fun occasion where tourists, male and female, can experience stretching their hands for a Balinese dance! The happy and entertaining quality of joged much depends upon where it is performed and who are the audience.