Performance
A Balinese artist and longtime scholar explain an integrated local world of movement, music, theatre, ritual, and training.
Traditional dance, drama, puppetry, and music do several jobs at once. The same performance can be an offering to the gods, entertainment for the crowd, and a way of teaching cultural values to the next generation. These arts are part of ordinary life, not set apart from it.
A performance makes sense only once you know the beliefs, history, and purpose behind it. Seeing it as a spectacle alone misses why it exists. To understand a form, ask what it is for and what tenets it expresses.
Learning a performing art means taking in a society's core values along with the technique. The way the arts are taught passes on basic values and religious beliefs. Training a performer is also how a culture reproduces itself.