Balinese dance lesson

Last sunday morning we were at Arma museum in Ubud and we learned there was to be a balinese children's dance class, so we went to have a look. The children all looked so cute in their little rehearsal costume,  I had to make a post about it!

Chillin out before the lesson. As you can see, all the girls are wearing a sarong (skirt obtained by wrapping a piece of fabric around themselves), a t-shirt and some sort of dance girdle. If you look at my other posts on balinese dancing, you can see that their stage costumes look very tight, so I guess the girdle is to imitate that feeling as well as to see clearly the movements of the waist, which are very important in this sort of dance. It's a long way from the pink leotard, tutu, white tights and leather slippers my sister and I used to wear in ballet class as children!

There were two or three teachers present, and the kids learn by imitation and correction, without any mirror. As they dance, the teachers go from child to child, correcting their position. 

Boys dancing class. Boys and girls are in separate classes, because balinese dancing is very gender specific. Boys and men's dances are rougher, with very large and strong movements, and girls and women's dance is much more fluid and feminine. However, in some traditional dance shows, we sometimes see a man dancing dressed as a woman, performing some sort of in-between dance. 

This little cutie (who was about two years old)

 was too young for the class, but she was all dressed up anyway, with her mini sarong, girdle and belt. I even saw her trying to imitate the older girls. Adorable!

AWWWWWW!!

If you want to see more about our balinese trip you can read alll about it on our blog here.

For more about balinese costumes, you can check out my other posts here.