the Nusa Dua Fiesta 2008, part 1

At the onset of my latest trip in Bali, I was pessimistic that would not have any time to have some “cultural” downtime. My schedule in Bali looked impossible. After arriving on a Friday, I needed to leave on Saturday for Bima, stay there overnight and then fly back to Bali on Sunday. On Monday, I would go to Lembongan Island and on Tuesday morning would be my departure.

Delightfully surprised was I when upon checking in at the hotel, I found a flyer for the Nusa Dua Fiesta 2008. I’ve heard a lot about the Nusa Dua Festival, a recent annual celebration by the premier 350 hectare tourist enclave south of the island. It is a small scale version of the Bali Arts Festival and is organized by the foundation, the Bali Tourism Development Corporation. This year however, the festival site has been moved to what would seem to be its new permanent location, the peninsula island, which I always frequented for its sunrise-facing “water blow” promontory and its small charming temple, the Pura Bias Tugel. (Actually, this is not an island but a projecting peninsular cape that has a plaza with a nice jogging track.)


a fisherman working early during sunrise at the peninsula island in Nusa Dua (September 16, 2006)
Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/400s, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV



a silhouette of my wife near the Pura Bias Tugel, also during sunrise (October 23, 2006)
Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/125s, f/5.6, 46mm, ISO 200, -2/3EV


The program for the festival which ran from October 10-14, 2008 looked promising, with performances, competition and workshops for arts including dance and music, sports activities and the usual pameran-style exhibition booths . I was attracted to the lineup on the only evening I would be available, Sunday October 12.

So there I went, with a couple of Balinese friends in tow.

Of all four dances which I caught on camera, I was most fascinated by a solo dance called the Tari Kebyar Duduk, a relatively modern choreography done almost solely in a sitting position (duduk is “to sit” in Indonesian). The young dancer, a member of a featured “master class” guild wore a traditional Balinese costume of
anteng, a long strip of stiff gilded prada/perada cloth bound around their torso like a tube and a kamben sarung skirts that has a long mermaid’s tail that is flipped gracefully all throughout the dance.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/250s, f/4.5, 155mm, ISO 800, -2/3EV



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/200s, f/4.5, 185mm, ISO 1600, -2/3EV



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/160s, f/4.0, 80mm, ISO 1600, -1.0EV



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/250s, f/4.5, 105mm, ISO 1600, -2/3EV

Next: more of the dance performances