Editing Trance and Dance in Bali (section)

== Synopsis ==

[[File:Trance and dance in Bali Bateson Mead still 3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The women [[ecstatic dance|dance ecstatically]], stabbing themselves with their razor-sharp ''kris'' daggers, and coming to no harm.|alt=Film still showing women dancers bending and writhing]]

The film describes and illustrates a single performance of the Kris Dance, a ritual dance on the Indonesian island of Bali. The dance portrays the struggle of good, in the shape of dragons, against evil, in the shape of masked ''Tjalonarang'' witches. The dancers are young women. They hold ''[[kris]]'' daggers. They are seen to enter trance, one at a time, and are revived from it. While in trance, they [[ecstatic dance|dance ecstatically]] and stab themselves with their daggers, remaining unharmed. 
The film opens and closes with displayed blocks of text, summarizing the dance's story.<ref name="Seckinger 1991"/>

No sounds were recorded at the time of filming. The film's soundtrack consists of narration by Mead, and Balinese music recorded elsewhere, possibly by Bateson and Mead's collaborators, the Canadian musicologist [[Colin McPhee]], and the scholar of Balinese dance Katherane Mershon.<ref name="Seckinger 1991"/>