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My World: A Dancer moves her arm just so

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
and hundreds of pair of entranced eyes follow the exact movement.
A gamelan player hits a melodic riff and hundreds of pairs of feet tap along with it.

Another dance performance works its magic on a crowd. Here is where all that is magical is combined.

From nightly cultural performances on stages humble and grand to museums filled with works by artists whose creativity flowers here. To the unbelievably green rice fields that spill down myriad hillsides to the rushing rivers below.

This is a feast for the soul.

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An open air gallery of contemporary painting.


Lonely Planet Text is gratefully acknowledged.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This is a feast for the soul.

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An open air gallery of contemporary painting.​

Lonely Planet Text is gratefully acknowledged.


Fahim, I see figures on each side. The tree on the right and the combination of a red-orange picture on the left with a table edge jutting out. If the material in the center is dimmed, they dance with one another. Try it!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
The crowds experience the magic performance.

I had come all the way to experience the magicians. Big big difference.

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People saw the performance. I saw the soul.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
There are more things in other places, Horatio
Than are taught in your philosophy at Wittenberg!

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There is no genuine understanding without honest respect.
Just as there is no feeling without an understanding.

And where there is no feeling, the doors remain closed.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Of course he shall try to sell you beads. Maybe you like something else. You haggle for the price.
You might even joke, maybe laugh.
You buy your item. Pay the money. Good Bye.

You could stay a while. Tell him what you do. Your family. he might tell you about his.
Maybe he too has kids. Where do they go to school? How is business?

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The family of man. Very rarely shall you find honest overtures without their rewards.

With this reward a door is opened. Slightly.
But then so is your door to mutual respect.
The door to a new understanding.
Worth much more than a few beads.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Children start to learn the dances at a very early age.
Throughout school age, dance lessons are compulsory.

Those that show talent, are sponsored. Almost everyday for 18 years they learn their classical dances.

Those that make it to the top, perform at the Royal Palace.

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These are not dances, as we know them. But a matter of their faith. Their beliefs.
Without having an understanding of their beliefs, the dances are just a performance.

I had not come to see a performance. I had come to see an enactment of their faith. Done with passion.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Faith. Articles of Faith. Woven into the very fabric of everyday life.
Understand this.
Understand what they hold dear. Understand their feelings.
Maybe, just maybe, you begin to understand the dances.

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What has this got to with a dance performance ?

Nothing and everything.

This has to with their Faith.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
This is Anun.
She is the manager of the spa. The place where I met the model.

I asked Anun to show me something. She, the other girls and me sat down.
Anun began her work.

Hands, art, aesthetics, color, elegance, and beauty worked together. I sat spellbound.

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All the girls would point here and there. Arrange this or that. Wonderful to watch.

It was finished. We carried it into the Hotel Lobby.

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The few guests stopped to look at it. And moved on. They were off to the Dance performance at the Royal Palace.

I had witnessed the making of the Dance. They had shown me its integral part. Their Faith.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
A place where days turn into weeks, and weeks into months.

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From the Soul of Bali.

In the Heart of Ubud..

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A Dancer moves her arm Just so.
 
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