As I arrived in front of the Laka Leke restaurant in Ubud, Bali, a dancer in Hanuman (monkey god) costumes appeared and danced in front of the gate. He performed his dance movement (acting like a monkey) and welcomed all the guests to come into the restaurant.
It is nearly 6:00 p.m. when I arrived in this open-building restaurant. I joined a tour group not just for dinner but to enjoy a dance performance program This program includes other activities, for example, learning to dance.
The restaurant building is very unique. Each table of is placed separately in different pavilions in the middle of the flower gardens and ponds. As we walked past the gate, more dancers (beautiful Balinese girls dressed in traditional uniforms) stood on the path and led us to the stage area.
The stage was an open area, surrounded by a flower garden, ponds, and pavilions where the guests sat. In the background on the stage, I saw rice farms
There was a lady teaching basic Balinese dance movements on the stage. Some of the people from the tour group tried the dance moves and stances they were taught by the lady.
I know this isn't a serious dancing lesson; it's for people to experience a little bit of the Balinese dance movement.
As evening fell, the travelers sat down at the tables around the pavilions surrounding the stage. All the lights on the stage were lit, and the real dance performance began.
The first dance was called the rabbit dance, performed by a group of young girls wearing rabbit costumes. Since this is a traditional dance, the costumes are also very traditional with a lot of Balinese attributes.
The dancers were young girls who, obviously, had trained a lot. And they were cute. According to the teacher, the youngest is about 6 years old.
The next dance was the butterfly dance, that were performed by older girls who had trained longer. Perhaps the dance was more difficult than the previous one.
There were a few more dances that came. There was a dance by three girls that invited the guests to join them on stage. This was a kind of social dance.
After the performance, the dancers got onto the stage, and we had a chance to take photos with them. I especially like to take photos of the little dancers. They were so cute in their butterfly costumes.
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| All photos in this blog post are mine and were taken with a Canon G7X Mark II. |