There are at least 3,000 different original types of dance forms in Indonesia. We saw the Barong and Legong Dance performed by the Panca Arhta Troupe from the Mahabharata at the Ubud Palace in Bali. The dances usually depict stories of the characters fighting evil gods or demons from Hindu scripture. Some characteristics of Balinese Dancers that you see that are the precise and angular movements of the hands and fingers, the necks moving from side to side, and the intensively expressive eyes. The Barong Dance depicts animals with supernatural powers that could protect humans, like guardian angels. The Barong Dance usually starts with playful monkeys teasing it. The Barong is a good magical spirit, like the Lion in Chinese culture. The dancers performing for the tourists are generally university students from the arts and culture program in Denpensar.

This 59 second clip shows some highlights from the Legong & Barong dance, helping to visualize what the performance was actually like.

Kecak is another form of dance, with bare-chested men in a trance chanting “cak-cak-cak”. Combined with the Kecak dance is a form of the Sanghyang Dance that is also known as the Fire Dance. The goal of this dance is to drive out the evil spirits from the surrounding area. We saw this performed in Ubud.

This 61 second clip of highlights makes it very clear how different this style of chanting dance is different from the Barong dance shown above.

Balinese Dance is taught at the many dance academies found throughout Bali. The official age to start an academy is 7 but young dancers sometimes begin to learn gestures as early as age 4 or 5, accompanied by rhythms produced by the gamelan. Dance is a strong part of religious and artistic expression in Bali. We stumbled upon this dance school just before the major holidays learning some movements for an upcoming temple ceremony. It is apparently unusual to see young boys in these schools.

37 seconds lets you quickly see how these children perform with their dance lessons.

These young ladies were entertaining us at lunch served in a private home. They are the granddaughter and great niece of one of our drivers, Nyoman. Afterwards, the granddaughter modeled for the photographers.

Another short (41 second clip) shows the type of dance these two young women performed for our personal entertainment,