Tightly wound in golden costumes, quivering flowers atop tooled leather crowns, the dancers’ eyes dart from side to side, matching the energy in their hands as their fingers seem to shimmer in their joints. Balinese dance is perhaps one of the most well-known in the world.

Steeped in sacred religious rituals, dance is one way Balinese communicate with their gods and deified ancestral spirits. Dance (and theater and music) entertains both the mortal and divine audience. Both males and females dance and begin to study at a very young age. Towns are filled with dance studios (sanggar) where children go after school a few hours a week. Recitals and
performances at temple festivals are de rigeur , whether or not the piece is polished or not. The process of learning is almost as important as the finished dance and the entire community can get involved, from the teachers to the musicians to the vendors who feed the hungry students to the drivers who take them to the venue. Rituals are replete with children as young as 3 and 4 years old performing the sacred forms of Rejang Dewa and Baris Gede. The deities don’t mind that the feet are in the wrong position or if you look at your neighbor when you forget a step–it is dance as an act of devotion that is important here.

Yet dancers study to become professionals as well and perform for visitors on the island as well as abroad. These performances are definitely more sophisticated as they are for an audience with specific expectations.

There are a few basic principles underlying Balinese dance (and Balinese culture in general) which can help you to understand what you’re seeing. One of these is rwa bhinneda or the “two differences”. Everything in life has its complementary opposite, such as night/day, female/male, left/right, evil/good. This is reflected in various ways in the dance: every movement must be done on both the right side and the left. The basic posture, agem, is done with the weight on the right foot (for right agem) and the arm positions held higher on the right side. The body weight is all shifted to the right, giving the impression that the dancer is
about to fall over. In fact, it takes great control to stay in this position. Every dance consists of strong (keras) and refined (alus) movements, of those categorized as “male” and “female” movements.

Control is essential. Every single muscle is alive with energy, from the upturned toes to the quivering fingers and the closed-mouth smile. The eyes are often punctuating an eight-count gong phrase, darting out to the side (seledet) on count six and returning to center on eight–they are never wandering. Balinese are careful not to show great emotion: anger, frustration and even joy are kept in check.

Almost all of the movements are abstract. There are some which depict animal or insect movements (“dragonfly darting”, “deer swatting flies away from her face”, “lizard skitting across the waters”) or other things from nature (“heavy ricepods swaying in the wind”, “picking flowers”) but they have nothing to do with the story. When there is a story (and most dances don’t have a specific story in mind or if they do, it’s not the main focus), it is told in abstract gestures. The Balinese admire a dancer who can execute the movements beautifully and give it grace but they respect most of all those performers who have taksu or a spiritual
charisma that gives the dance that extra special something.

Here are some of the more popular dances that you may see during your time here.

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