Where to Watch Balinese Dance in Ubud: Our Top Picks and Tips The sun drops behind the palm trees, the temple courtyard fills with the murmur of a hundred travellers, and then the first metallic notes of the gamelan ring out across the stone. We shuffle onto our cushions, the air thick with frangipani and…
The Frog Dance and Other Lesser-Known Balinese Dance Shows The gamelan starts before we even see the dancers — a ripple of bronze keys, a drummer locking in a tempo that sounds almost like croaking. We’re in a village banjar in Buleleng, North Bali, a good two hours from the nearest beach club, and a…
Temple Etiquette for Visitors: How to Respect Balinese Dance and Gamelan We still wince when we remember the bloke from Melbourne who turned up to a Legong performance at Ubud Palace in board shorts and a Bintang singlet. He wasn’t being disrespectful on purpose — he genuinely didn’t know that a temple courtyard isn’t the…
Taking a Balinese Dance Class: What Australian Travellers Need to Know You’re walking down Jalan Hanoman in Ubud just after sunset when you hear it — the metallic shimmer of gamelan gongs and the rapid patter of kendang drums drifting through a temple gate. A group of women in gold-painted costumes are rehearsing, their fingers…
Legong: History and Meaning The gamelan strikes its first note and the temple courtyard falls silent. Under strings of dim bulbs, two young dancers step forward in gold-leafed costumes, their eyes casting sharp, deliberate glances across the crowd. Every finger trembles, every hip shifts in time with the drums. For Australian travellers who have flown…
Kecak at Uluwatu: Tips for the Sunset Show We still remember the first time we heard it — that hypnotic “cak-cak-cak” rising and falling in waves as the sun dropped behind the Indian Ocean. We were perched on a stone amphitheatre at Uluwatu Temple, surrounded by hundreds of other travellers, watching a circle of men…
Jegog: Bali’s Bamboo Gamelan Stand in front of a Jegog ensemble and you feel the music before you fully hear it. The bass notes roll up through the floor, hit you somewhere in the sternum, and hang in the air like thunder rolling across a rice field. If your only experience of Balinese gamelan is…
Gamelan Instruments: A Beginner’s Guide for Australian Travellers We still remember the first time we heard gamelan. It was a sticky Tuesday night in Ubud, somewhere behind the art market stalls, and a group of musicians were warming up under a corrugated roof. We had expected something soft and ambient — the kind of spa…
Dance in Balinese Ceremonies: What Every Australian Traveller Should Know The sun has just dipped behind the palms when you arrive at the temple gate. Worshippers in white and gold are streaming in with offerings balanced on their heads, and then you hear it — the first deep gong, followed by the shimmering cascade of…
Barong and Rangda: The Story Behind the Dance The gamelan strikes up before the crowd has even settled. A procession of villagers in white and gold moves through the temple gates, and then the Barong appears — a shaggy, lion-like creature with a snapping jaw and eyes that seem to follow you across the courtyard….