A dance pantomime, the Barong depicts the adventures of colourful, mystical creature with a long back, curved tail and fantastic face which bears no resemblance to any known animal. The Barong is the symbol of all things good. It is associated with benign spirits and white magic.

Sanghyang dances developed from the essential religious function of maintaining the health and the well-being of the village. They are performed to exercise evil spirits that may be infesting the community in the form of sickness or death. The boys and girls selected to be Sanghyang dancers are highly regarded by the community and are exemp from certain village responsibilities.

The feasts they perform while dancing are accepted as medium of spiritual expression, since the dancers is thought to be possesed by a deity. The Sanghyang Dedari dancers have never had any dancing lessons. In normal life, they cannot remember nor repeat the motions they enact while in trance. Nor can a Sanghyang Jaran dancer normaly walk on fire.

Described here is Sanghyang Dedari, a ritual dance where it is believed a divine spirit temporarily descends to a village and reveals itself through the entranced dancers. Sanghyang is the title for deified spirit and means "The revered One" or "Holiness" ; Dedari means "Nymph"

The girls dancing as "Revered Angels" are always underage, for a virgin child is considered holy or pure. There are other forms of the Sanghyang trance dance as well. In Sanghyang Jaran, an entranced boy (or a priest) dances on a horse, jaran, represented by a hobbyhorse. He dances around a bonfire made from coconut husks. If the Sanghyang song leads him, he dances through the fire. Mountain villages near Kintamani perform the Sanghyang Deling, where puppets dance suspended on a string between two poles manipulated by children.