Balinese dances are a very ancient tradition that is a part of the religious expression among the Balinese people.
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In Hinduism, dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. The creative and reproductive balance is often personified as Shiva's wife, Durga, sometimes called Uma, Parvati, or Kali. This has significance in Balinese Hinduism, since the common figure of Rangda is similar in many ways to Durga[1].
In Bali there are various categories of dance[2], including epic performances such as the omnipresent Mahabharata[3] and Ramayana. Certain ceremonies at village temples feature a special performance of a dance-drama, a battle between the mythical characters Rangda, the witch representing evil, and Barong, the lion or dragon, representing good.
Among the dance traditions in Bali, the following deserve special mention:
Bali dancers learn the craft as children from their mothers as soon as they are born, in the womb they are played the Balinese music and are taught to dance with their hands before they can walk. Official training as a Bali dancer starts as young as 7 . In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble specific to Java and Bali[4]. Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet are coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds.
The number of codified hand positions and gestures, the mudras[5][6][7], is higher in India than in Java or Bali. It has been speculated that they have been forgotten as the dance was transmitted from India to Java[8]. Hand positions and gestures are nonetheless as important in Javanese and Balinese dance as in India[9]. Whether in India, Indonesia or Cambodia, hands have a typically ornamental role and emphasize the dance's delicate intricacy.
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