Rethinking Balinese Dance

Abstract

How should we set about understanding dance in Bali and its relevance to the study of Indonesia and the Malay world? Is it one of the great contributions to Malay civilization to be appreciated and studied alongside classical Indian and Japanese performance? Or, is it inextricable from religion and best considered as ritual? As a spectacle watched by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year, is it instead a culture industry? Or is it all these woven together to produce a hybrid mass pilgrimage? And what can the critical study of Balinese dance contribute to a broader understanding of cross-cultural performance?