The Legong and Barong are dances performed regularly in Bali. Each tells a story! For some reason, the Legong ended up being my dance of Bali. Through various unintentional twists of fate, I ended up seeing the Legong 4 times. One was very special though: When I saw a temple ceremony happening in the evening, I stopped my bike to sneak a peak. I was very hesitant about intruding. I was spotted by a Balinese woman in ceremonial dress who came over to me and wordlessly grabbed my hand and walked me into the temple, brought me water, sat me down and sat with me while we watched the Legong being performed in ceremony for the Balinese, not tourists. I cherish this memory. The following videos are not from that event, but they very closely resemble what I saw there.
Welcome Dance in the Legong.
The dancers throw flowers on you in blessing.
Here's some short clips of each of the 5 typlical dances of Legong.
There are more, but these are the most commonly danced.
Clips from The Barong
This dance reminds me of a Balinese comedy version of "Where the Wild Things Are".
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