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Xylophone musicians in a gamelan orchestra warm up the audience before the dances begin.
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Gamelan musicians are incredibly skilled, individually performing complex rhythms that blend together at a frenetic pace.
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At the beginning of this performance, a priest leads the perfomers in a procession onto the stage.
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Two dancers are carried to the stage.
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Masked dancers.
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Sometimes it's har to tell whether men or women are performing a particular dance.
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One of the many demons featured in Balinese dance.
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In this epic dance, the evil witch Rangda, on the right, is plotting to kill a Balinese king.
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The Rangda is quite the evil beast; she sports a collection of human entrails as a necklace.
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Rangda tries to make the king vulnerable by casting a spell on his bodyguards so they try to kill themselves...
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... But the good demon Barong, performed by two men in a giant costume, protects the bodyguards by casting a spell making it impossible for their daggers to penetrate their skin.
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The Barong in all of its glory.
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The Barong and the king, whose life has just be saved.
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In this dance, the Barong performs solo, playfully prancing around the stage.
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A group of young women imitate a group of deer playing in the forest.
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In a related dance, these girls perform as butterflies.
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Every movement a dancer makes is choreographed, down to the position of the hands.
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A jauk dance. The jauk is a playful, but sinister demon in which the dancer gets to improvise and even sometimes interact with the crowd.
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The jauk may look dangerous, but no members of the audience were hurt during this performance.
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A legong dancer. Legongs are traditionally young girls, but you're more likely to see young woman dancing in performances for tourists.
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Another legong dancer.
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Legongs are well known for their dramatic eye movements.
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In this dance, a legong performs intricate movements with a paper fan, closing her eyes throughout the performance.
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In a Kebyar Trompong dance, a male dancer is also a musician, playing solos on a gamelan gong with the rest of the orchestra.
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The Kebyar Trompong dancer twirls his drumsticks.
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The Kebya Trompong dance was made famous in the 1920s by a flamboyant dancer named Mario.
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The same dancer performs another Kebyar dance known as the Kebyar Duduk, which is performed in a sitting position.
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In this dance, a group of young women start off the night's performances by showering the stage with flower petals, carried in a metal bowl.
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Flower petals fall to the stage.
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A dance based on a story from the Ramayana in which a prince falls in love.
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The old king, father of the prince.
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