Barong dance

The next scene is popularly known as "Keris Dance". Balinese keris dance is part of Barong dance performance, in which the dancers wielded kris as weapon. This dance is considered sacred since it involved trance psychological condition.

The Rangda character appears and wreaks havoc. She casts black magic upon male dancers, who represent Airlangga's soldiers, and orders them to commit suicide. In a trance, these men stab themselves on their chest with their own kris. Meanwhile, Barong and the priest cast protective magic on these men, which makes them invulnerable to sharp objects. The kris dance is a thrilling performance when the tranced dancers stab themselves and showed their immunity to the keris stab.[1]

Keris dance is actually a dangerous dance, since it can led to the fatal accident that may caused injury or death. On February 2021, a 16 years old boy keris dancer was stabbed to death right in his heart by his own kris in a trance, during a Rangda dance performance in Banjar Blong Gede, Pemecutan Kaja, Denpasar, Bali.[3]

The dance ends with the final battle between Barong and Rangda, concluding with the victory of Barong over Rangda. Rangda runs away, the evil is defeated, and the celestial order is restored.

The Reog dance of Ponorogo in Java involves a lion figure known as the singa barong.[4][5] It is held on special occasions such as the Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr), City or Regency anniversary, or Independence day carnival. A single dancer, or warok, carries the heavy lion mask about 30 – 40 kg weight by his teeth. He is credited with exceptional strength. The warok may also carry an adolescent boy or girl on its head. When holding an adolescent boy or girl on his head, the Reog dancer holds the weight up to total 100 kilograms. The great mask that spans over 2.5 meters with genuine tiger or leopard skin and real peacock feathers. It has gained international recognition as the world's largest mask.

Barongsai is referred to Chinese lion dance, often performed by Chinese Indonesian during Imlek. The barongsai has different forms that are distinct to the Balinese barong and Javanese reog, and it is not known if these have any relation to the Chinese lion.[6]