In Hindu the dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. The creative and reproductive balance is often personified as Shivas wife, Durga, sometimes called Uma, Parvati, or Kali. This has significance in Balinese Hinduism, since the common figure of Rangda is similar in many ways to Durga. In Bali there are various categories of dance (i.e. barong, legong, kecak) including epic performances such as the omnipresent Mahabharata and Ramayana.
Bali dancers learn the craft as children from their mothers as young as age 4 (see a nine years old dancer on the right). In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble specific to Java, Bali and Malaya.
Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet ate coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds. The number of codified hand positions and gestures, the mudras, is higher in India than in Java or Bali. It has been speculated that they have been forgotten as the dance was transmitted from India to Java. Hand positions and gestures are nonetheless as important in Javanese and Balinese dance as in India. Whether in India, Indonesia or Cambodia, hands have a typically ornamental role and emphasize the dances delicate intricacy.
