Balinese Legong Dancer

A portrait of a Balinese Legong Dancer in full costume.

The “Tari Legong” is a graceful classical Balinese dance that originated as form of court entertainment in the palaces of Balinese royalty around the 17th Century and was traditionally performed by young female dancers. Historically, successful performers enjoyed a high social standing, often marrying into the Balinese social elite at the end of their dance careers. Today, the Legong is widely performed across Bali at various cultural centres, festivals and tourist attractions, but has retained its religious and artistic significance, making it a symbol of Balinese identity.

Legong dancers wear vibrant brocade costumes with intricate floral motifs and flower-adorned headdresses to give a dazzling appearance during a performance. They often perform as a pair or a group and the choreography involves intricate finger gestures, expressive eye movements and precise footwork which depict stories from Balinese folklore. The dancers are accompanied by a percussion-based orchestra known as a Gamelan from which the word Legong is derived: “Leg” (graceful movement) and “gong” (Gamelan music). Like other performing arts, Legong dancers devote themselves a life of rigorous training from an early age to perfect the gestures and movements required for the extensive repertoire of Legong dances.

This is my third attempt at portraying a Balinese Legong Dancer. The original picture was completed as a pencil drawing in 2018 and then re-visited in 2020 when I embraced digital art and produced a colourised version. Five years later, I wanted to see how my approach to the subject and the techniques I use to complete the picture have changed.

In this version I have applied first principles by emphasising the use of directed light on the subject. It can be seen that the light is coming from the left of the picture putting some areas in shadow while other areas glint with reflected light to show the variations in the costume’s texture. Furthermore, the entire figure of the Legong Dancer is shown to give an impression of the chorographical movements involved, which is something not done in the previous two versions of this picture as the images were cut off below the waistline.

Multiple photographic references were used to depict the dancer’s pose as well as accurately convey the costume’s intricate details to give a truly unique portrait of these graceful and highly ornate performers.

Title:                                     Balinese Legong Dancer
Medium:                             Digital Painting on MacBook Air using Sketchbook pro.
Completed:                       28th November 2025.
Artist:                                   Stuart Carrol.