What is Balinese dance? Three genres, three evenings

UNESCO describes traditional Balinese dances as performed by male and female dancers in costumes of brightly colored cloth painted with gold floral and faunal motifs, with gold-leafed and jeweled accessories.⁸ The dances combine a basic posture with the knees outward and the stomach held in, movements at different tempos, and facial expressions with eye movements that reveal happiness, sadness, anger, fear and love, all accompanied by gamelan.^9,10

That list answers what is Balinese dance in a single sentence: a body language of posture, eyes and hands, carried by a bronze orchestra. UNESCO inscribed the tradition, under the title UNESCO listing of three Balinese dance genres, to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015.²

The learning is communal. In Balinese communities dances are mainly passed on informally to children from an early age, within groups.¹¹ Balinese dance in Ubud feels rehearsed and natural at once, and that early learning inside a group is part of the picture.

Legong balinese dance is the refined one. The ministry places its beginnings in the 17th or 18th century, in the age of Bali's royal courts, and describes dancers who use symbolic finger gestures and darting eyes under golden headdresses.^18,19,20,21 A single Legong can last between 30 minutes and an hour.²²

Legong draws on Balinese folklore and Hindu epics such as the Ramayana to tell of gods, heroes and legendary battles.²³ The variant named for our ticket is Legong Kraton, which recounts the story of a king and his court.²⁴ That palace link is why the tourism ministry calls the nightly Legong at Ubud Palace among the most authentic.²⁵

If you want the full story of the movements, the costume and the evening at the palace, the Legong guide on this site goes deeper. For now, remember the contrast you will feel in the seat: Legong is exact and ornamental, where the next two dances are louder and more physical.

Kecak stands apart: it has no gamelan and is accompanied only by the chanting of a chorus of men.⁵ The ministry says tens to hundreds of male dancers sit in a circle chanting "cak, cak, cak", and one of its pages gives the chorus as about 50 to 60 men around a set of torches.^32,33 A soloist leads, indicating the high and low notes, and also narrates.³⁴

The story is a shorter version of the Ramayana epic, and the dramatic scene shows Hanoman captured and put inside a circle of fire.^35,36 The ministry says Kecak first appeared in 1930, when dancer Wayan Limbak and painter Walter Spies reworked the Sanghyang ritual with the Ramayana, and adds that it was initially developed for tourist performances.^37,38

The ministry describes Kecak as an open-air performance staged around sunset, typically on a clifftop overlooking the sea, and names Pura Uluwatu as the best place to watch it, with Pura Dalem Ubud and Padang Tegal Stage on its list as well.^39,40 In Ubud the evenings are shorter and nearer, with torches and a courtyard instead of a cliff.

With a single evening, match the dance to the mood. Legong suits a seat in a courtyard and a taste for detail, with the daily 7:30 PM show from $6. Kecak suits a listener who wants a crowd of voices and torchlight, from $6. Barong suits an early riser who likes masks and a good story, from $5.

Mind the refund terms as well. The Legong ticket is listed as non-refundable, while the Kecak and Barong listings both allow free cancellation up to a day before the start, with a full refund. If your plans are still fluid, that difference may decide for you.

Whichever you pick, you are watching a living practice and not a museum piece. UNESCO's committee encouraged Indonesia to keep addressing possible threats from promoting Balinese dance festivities for tourists, a reminder to treat the performers as artists and ceremonies as theirs.⁴² The two-question chooser at the top of this page does the matching for you.