Trance and Dance in Bali (1952)

Directed by

Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

22 min

Rating

5.4 of 10 from 9 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This short documentary shows Balinese women dancing while in a trance. They stab themselves with daggers but are not hurt. The footage was shot by anthropologists in the 1930s.

educationalclinicalobservationalcalmdetachedhypnoticacademicdated

What happens

Trance and Dance in Bali is a short documentary film shot by the anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson during their research on Bali in the 1930s. It shows female dancers with sharp kris daggers dancing in trance, eventually stabbing themselves without injury. The film was not released until 1951. It has attracted praise from later anthropologists for its pioneering achievement, and criticism for its focus on the performance, omitting relevant details such as the conversation of the dancers. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• A Balinese Trance Seance (1979)
• Ilden i Kroppen (1992)
• Love Island (1952)
• Man Alive! (1952)
• Panta Rhei (1952)
• Lord Siva Danced (1948)
• Dances of the Kwakiutl (1951)
• Blommor åt gudarna (1957)