Kecak dance in Bali: which stage suits your evening

At Uluwatu the show is daily, 18:00 to 19:00, with the gate open from 16:00.¹ The cliff stage looks out over the Indian Ocean from about 70 m up, and the management ties the performance to the sunset behind the temple.⁹ An adult ticket is IDR 150,000 on the temple's own list, and a child aged 2 to 9 pays IDR 75,000.¹⁰ That sets the benchmark for the other stages: the Ministry's figures for them sit in the same range, as the table below shows, so price alone rarely decides the evening, and the setting does. Pick the backdrop first, then check the cost.

This is the stage for the sunset, and the setting is the draw for most people who come. Up to 1,200 spectators fit into the amphitheater for each show,¹¹ and a crowd of that size is part of the atmosphere. The cost of a big crowd is arrival time: the management wants you there at least an hour ahead of the show.¹² Plan the evening around that, and the size of the crowd stops being a worry.

Our other pages cover the Uluwatu evening in detail, from the ticket price to the schedule and the road in. If you have one evening for the Kecak and you are on the Bukit, or willing to drive there, this is the stage to choose. If you would rather be close to your hotel, or you are curious about a smaller courtyard, the next stages are worth a look, and each of them has its own pleasures.

The dance itself is the same art wherever you see it. The Ministry describes a circle of about 50 to 60 men, bare-chested and wearing Balinese sarongs, sitting cross-legged around a set of torches in the center.³⁹ A soloist leads the chorus, sets the high and low notes and acts as narrator.⁴⁰ The chorus of men represents an army of monkeys.⁴¹ That is the same on every stage you visit, which makes the dance easy to follow once you know the story.

What changes from stage to stage is everything around the circle: the backdrop, the crowd, the time of day and the price of the seat. A show in an open-air temple court in Ubud and a show on a sea cliff share a story and a sound, yet one has a village feel and the other has an ocean. If you are curious about the story you will be watching, our page on the Kecak story tells it from the first scene to the fire.

If you have the time, see two. A courtyard in the evening in Ubud and a cliff at sunset on the Bukit show the same dance in two quite different lights, and the contrast is worth the second ticket on a longer trip. If you have one evening only, choose by where you are sleeping and by what you want behind the dancers, and let the rest of the island wait for another trip. Whichever stage you choose, arrive early and sit where you can see the whole circle.