Introduction

Dance performances form a major part of the global cultural tourism trade. Dance performances can capture expressions of culture within a visually appealing and culturally distinguishable, yet universally understandable form. However, the impacts of tourism on dance performances have sparked widespread debate, not excluding Balinese dance performances. Bali is renowned for its exotic and colourful dances and they are frequently used in tourism promotions abroad. An important aspect of the debate centres on the ability of dance to perpetuate meaning for the Balinese people in the light of commercialisation.

This chapter provides an overview of some of the commercialisation and authenticity tourism issues that have been raised in relation to Balinese dance performances. The barong dance is used to illustrate some of the changes that have taken place. The literature, as well as the authors' research on this topic in May–July 2002, is drawn upon. The predominant fieldwork methodology used for the authors' work was informal interviews with dance troupe performers and managers at the Southern end of the island between Denpasar (the capital city) and Ubud, the major tourist region in Bali. In order to gain an understanding of Balinese dance performances, a brief description is provided below.

Tourism in Bali

Bali is a leading international tourism destination. Populated by approximately 3 million people on a land area of 5633 km2, Bali is situated in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago and is located just south of the equator. The island is a popular destination in the Asia Pacific region given its close proximity to key cities, for example, the flying time from Singapore is 1.5 hours, whilst it takes only 2.5 hours to fly from Perth (Australia) to Bali.