Dancing to a Disco Beat? Children, Teenagers, and the Localizing of Popular Music in Bali

The following examines how children and teenagers in Bali, Indonesia, indigenize local, national, and global forms of popular music in disco dance performances. The article focuses on disco dance performances as just one element in a much broader argument about adaptation and change in Balinese society that includes the introduction of popular modes of activity, including television, radio, film, and discos. Appadurai (1996) suggests the overlap of people, places, and economic mechanisms has led to a compression of time and space, a factor Appadurai sees as a hallmark of globalization. Throughout I highlight how Balinese children and teenagers respond to global influences, in particular the influences of television and popular music, through their disco dance performances. I do this to illustrate some of the ways in which young people in Bali incorporate and give meaning to popularization modalities in their everyday lives.

To begin, I briefly outline theoretical approaches to globalization before moving on to discuss important studies that focus upon globalization within ethnomusicological research. Having provided this overview, I then move on to consider studies of popular music in Indonesia, in general, and Bali, in particular, to situate the current paper within the context of previous research in my fieldwork area. By recounting a series of conversations with informants, I then examine the role of popular music in the lives of children and teenagers in Bali to show how television and radio provide young people with access to various forms of local, national, and global popular music and their associated dance forms. Through ethnographic descriptions and an application of Foucault's (1986) concept of heterotopia, I investigate how, by performing their disco dance routines in contexts more associated with traditional Balinese dance, children and teenagers actively fuse external music and dance influences with traditional performance practices. Thus, in conclusion, I show how such routines allow children and teenagers to create dance performances that are simultaneously new, modern, and "Balinese." Before going any further it is important to inform the reader that during fieldwork, children, teenagers, and adults frequently used the English term "disco dance" when talking among themselves and with the author. The same term, therefore, is used throughout the following to denote the particular performance genre under discussion.

Perspectives on Globalization

Theories concerning globalization posit that although such a process links individuals together, it also forces them to reposition themselves in one of two possible ways: either to reassert fundamental principles in the face of outside or threatening influences, or to absorb some elements of another culture into their own (Robertson 1992; Harrison 1999). The cultural imperialist model argues that globalization imposes cultural influences on indigenous peoples, where Western and capitalist ideals are disseminated to the rest of the world and become homogenized (Waters 1998, 3; Taylor 1997, xvii). However, globalization can also be a reflexive process, enabling participants to become active in the practices of global exchange (cf. Giddens 1990, 64). The latter perspective seeks to demonstrate not only that indigenous peoples have voices and strategies of their own, but also how they assimilate or reject global forms to a greater or lesser degree. Such groups can then use external forces and influences to the advantage of the local community and, rather than setting up defenses to keep external cultural influences out, they actively appropriate and adapt to them. This last point echoes Eriksen (2003, 4) who states that the actualization of external influences "is always local and embedded in locally constituted life-worlds and power relations." Similarly, Eriksen (2003, 4) prefers to use the term "transnational flows" rather than globalization—for ideas and objects always have origins and destinations; people instigate flows, they do not just happen.

Within ethnomusicology, scholars like Lomax (1968) hypothesize that increasing global flows of influence will lead to musical homogenization among local musical traditions. However, Nettl (1983) sees beyond this perspective and alludes to the complexities of musical and cultural change and exchange. Nettl (1983, 345–54) suggests eight possible responses to musical change. These possible responses include abandonment or total loss of a tradition; substantial impoverishment as a result of cultural exchange; artificial isolated preservation in a restricted environment; compressing diverse styles into a single musical or social context; establishment of repertoires to consolidate nationally recognized music(s) as opposed to regional styles; reintroduction of musical styles to a place of origin after a sojourn; exaggeration or exoticization by Western listeners; and humorous juxtaposition of Western and non-Western music. Notable recent ethnomusicological studies concerned with processes of historical and cultural change as a result of globalization have been conducted primarily in urban contexts or focused upon notions of rural-urban displacement or migration (see Becker 1980; Waterman 1991; Guilbault 1993; Guilbault et al. 1993; Turino 1993; Sumarsam 1995; Averill 1997; Erlmann 1999; Heimark 2003; Beng 2003; Alexeyeff 2004). Many of these studies highlight how, as a result of globalization, traditional musical forms are constructed or reconstructed as modern genres. Roseman's (1996, 2000a, 2000b, 2005) recent focus of research among the Temiar of Peninsular Malaysia is a notable exception to this trend. Through detailed ethnographic descriptions, the author describes how a society positioned on the periphery is integrally involved in processes of cultural and global exchange. However, no matter the context of their research, all of the above authors regard music as a powerful indicator of cultural change.

Similarly, studies regarding Indonesian popular music, including Becker (1975), Frederick (1982), Hatch (1989), Manuel and Baier (1986), and Yampolsky (1989, 2001), with contemporary research by Wallach (2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005a, 2005b) and Bodden (2005) have tended to focus on changing musical practices and tastes in response to globalization. Kartomi (1995) outlines a general approach to the study of popular music, dance, and theater in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while Lockard (1996, 1998) provides a comparative analysis of globalization, popular music, and politics in Southeast Asia (see also Wong and Lysloff 1998). However, in their overview of Indonesian popular music studies, Sen and Hill (2004, 75) observe how sensitive attention to the local in Indonesia is often lost when scholars attempt to comprehend "the different ways in which the global and the local rub against one another." In the edited volume by Rubinstein and Connor (1999), several authors also make similar comments relating to changes that have occurred in relation to Balinese music, dance, and drama during the 20th century (see Hough 1999; MacRae 1999; Picard 1999). This work stems from earlier research, conducted by McKean (1978), Sanger (1988), Vickers (1989), and Picard (1996), which focuses on the development of cultural tourism in Bali, an area of investigation that is useful but not central to the main concern being argued here.¹ Such studies assist in comprehending the impact of globalization on the traditional Balinese performing arts, although understanding the affect of globalization upon popular music in Bali remains difficult due to the limited research currently available.

However, exciting contemporary studies concerning popular music in Bali are starting to emerge. Baulch (1996, 2002, 2003, 2007) has conducted research concerning the rise of the reggae, death/thrash metal, and punk scenes in Bali during the 1990s. The emergence of such scenes paralleled a growing criticism of accelerated tourism on the island. Those involved in the death/thrash metal and punk scenes are said to have gravitated toward the periphery of Balinese society where they rejected dominant notions of tradition in favor of reaching out toward a global music scene. In addition to Baulch, Wallach (2005a) provides evidence of the recording and production values of popular music in a Southern Bali music studio, while Laskewicz (2004, 191) observes how popular music provides an opportunity for Balinese youth to actively "create their own traditions, even if they are based on western models."² The growing influence of popular music in Bali is mentioned also in a recent article by Harnish (2005), in which the author examines the developments that have occurred in Balinese musical culture during the 20th century.

Highlighting the effects of colonialism and modernization in the transformation of Balinese gamelan music, Harnish (2005) outlines how existing and emerging forms of Balinese music are essentially based on older traditional genres: new genres of music build upon existing forms, and once they have become established they become old as something new emerges. According to Harnish (2005, 119) such a process demonstrates the "uncanny ability [of the Balinese] to assimilate national, external, or global ideas and objects and localize them, infusing them with new and relevant local meanings." In relation to traditional forms of music, dance, and drama, this process is linked to notions of continuity and change in Balinese society (Vickers 1996). However, developments in popular music in Bali have not followed this pattern, and Harnish (2005, 119) argues that various forms of Balinese popular music are "reactions of resistance to 'traditional' and gong-centered music" (2005, 119).³ Thus, by participating in such activities, Harnish (2005, 119) concludes that part of Bali is diverting from the existing model regarding cultural change and "embracing transnational culture." Such diversions, though, do not represent a break or disconnect from the existing model. Instead, they offer those involved—especially in the case of Balinese reggae, death-thrash, and punk bands in 1990s Bali—the opportunity to create "schisms"; liminal, in-between spaces that "enable revisions of the mundane orienting dualism inherent to dominant discourses of [Balinese] identity" (Baulch 2007, 183). Similarly, in this article, I argue that instead of moving away from existing cultural models, children and teenagers attempt to connect local traditional dance aesthetics with national and global music and dance influences in their disco dance performances.

Popular Music in the Lives of Balinese Children and Teenagers

Baulch (2002, 2003, 2007) and Harnish (2005) suggest then that the appropriation by Balinese youths of particular genres of popular music, such as death/thrash metal, are attempts to reject notions of traditional culture and look outside of the island for cultural influences that serve to reinforce a new or "different" sense of identity, one which is positioned on the periphery of Balinese society. However, from my research such a notion seems to only apply to older, male youths (cf. Noszlopy 2005) and not to the children and teenagers in my study (mostly between the ages of 5 and 14) who utilize and give meaning to various genres of popular music in their everyday lives.

The majority of my fieldwork took place with children and teenagers in and around the village of Keramas, which is situated in the south-central administrative district of Gianyar. During 12 months of fieldwork in Keramas (from October 2003 to October 2004), I had numerous conversations with approximately 40 children and teenagers, girls and boys, concerning the various forms of popular music to which they listened and danced. These conversations generally took place during breaks in rehearsals at a village dance studio (sanggar tari) where the majority of my research concerning the teaching and learning of Balinese traditional dance took place (McIntosh 2006a, 2006b, forthcoming).⁴ Furthermore, I also talked with informants on this subject outside of the sanggar setting, for example, when traveling to temple with them or when I was invited to visit their homes. Accompanying children and teenagers on shopping expeditions to supermarkets and department stores in the nearby city of Gianyar also provided additional opportunities for such conversations.

During many of these discussions the topic of conversation almost always touched upon the issue of popular music on television. All of my informants had at least one television, radio, or cassette tape player in their family home, but it was not unusual for many families to own two or three television sets; one child told me that there were six televisions in his family compound. In addition to these multimedia devices, a majority owned video compact disc (VCD) players, but only a few had digital video disc (DVD) players since these were relatively expensive, especially when compared to the price of VCD players. From these conversations, and from sitting and watching television with informants either at the sanggar or in their homes, I became aware that children and teenagers watch a variety of programs broadcast on Balinese and Indonesian television channels. Younger children tended to watch cartoons broadcast on Indonesian television channels in the morning before attending school. These often were syndicated cartoons, such as Pokémon, Tom and Jerry, or Scooby Doo, or the children's television series the Teletubbies, dubbed into either Malay or Indonesian.⁵ Older children and teenagers avidly discussed the current story lines in their favorite Indonesian soap operas or mentioned that they watched syndicated English language programs, including American talk shows such as Oprah. Every informant discussed watching various music programs on television. Children and teenagers mentioned watching recorded performances of traditional Balinese music and dance shows broadcast on the Balinese television channel (Bali TV). Informants also discussed short, popular music videos, featuring local artists, broadcast regularly on the Balinese television channel during commercial breaks in between programs. The lyrics of such songs are in Balinese with Western instruments, including keyboard, electric and bass guitars, and drums providing the musical accompaniment. Other favorite popular music programs included the viewing of live or recorded concerts broadcast from the neighboring island of Java featuring the Indonesian popular music genre of dangdut (which will be discussed below). In addition, some informants enjoyed the music and sound tracks used in Euro-American and Bollywood movies. However, since these movies were usually broadcast late at night, only teenagers tended to discuss these genres. Teenagers also consciously used programs and films broadcast in English with Indonesian subtitles to learn and practice the English language. Furthermore, as part of this process, they regularly sang pop songs together in English. They told me that they did not always understand the meanings of songs, but this did not seem to be particularly important for them. Instead, the singing of excerpts from songs by various Western artists, including Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, allowed them to practice their English and was a way for them to show off to their friends.

Other access to popular music is available to children and teenagers via local markets in larger rural towns, such as those that contain administrative centers or host tourists. For example, in the city of Gianyar, approximately a ten-minute motorcycle ride from Keramas, the market is open almost every day, plus additional evening openings. There, locals from the surrounding area are able to buy legal and pirated cassette tapes, music compact discs, and copies of Euro-American films mainly in VCD format. Illegal, pirated copies of such material are very inexpensive and well within the range of the average teenager's pocket money or part-time wages, whereas legal copies are more expensive. Available pirate VCD music recordings cover a variety of genres including traditional Balinese, Balinese popular music, Indonesian pop, Bollywood, disco, and other styles of popular music. Other places to purchase popular music cassettes and compact discs include local department stores and from street traders. The legal cassettes from markets and department stores are more expensive and are of better quality. These tend to be bought by tourists who pass through Gianyar and Balinese who earn a higher income. Generally, the children in Keramas do not buy music recordings from department stores, but they do go there with their parents or older siblings to buy clothing, cheap fashion accessories, hair decorations, jewelry, and makeup sold at reasonable prices. Older children and teenagers also meet their friends in these places if they have transport available. In such venues there is always a continuous stream of the latest local, national, and global popular music being relayed through loudspeakers. While many informants consider the hottest music releases to be very expensive, it is not long before illegal copies are available for purchase in local markets.

Conversations with Children and Teenagers about Popular Music

A number of conversations with informants were informal and conducted "on the move," for example, while traveling to and from temple. Other discussions were conducted more formally on both an individual and group basis. All conversations were conducted outside the company of adults where it was possible for the children and teenagers to speak more freely.⁶ Frequently during such interviews older children and teenage informants sang snippets and choruses from Balinese pop songs by well-known contemporary male singers, such as Ary Kencana, an artist who mainly sings medium-paced ballads, and the Balinese rock singer Lolot. During 2003–2004, Lolot was easily the most famous rock singer on the island, the most famous of his hits being the song "Tresna Memaksa" (Love Compulsion) from his 2003 album Gumine Mangkin (The World Today). Both singers perform songs in Balinese that are accompanied by Western-style pop instruments, including guitar, bass, drum kit, and keyboards.

The rock and reggae influences found in the work of some Balinese popular music artists, such as Lolot, are attempts by local singers and musicians to look outside of the island for musical material to enable them to reposition their identities within Balinese society. By drawing from and incorporating these styles into their music, Baulch (2003) writes that such individual artists and groups deliberately draw upon more global (resistant) popular musical influences as the inspiration for their music. By listening to and singing Balinese songs that draw upon such global musical influences, children and teenagers also participate in these processes of global exchange and appropriation. The artists who appropriate such external musical forms do so in order to reposition themselves in opposition to the majority of the Balinese population (Baulch 2003; Harnish 2005). However, my informants considered such artists to be key figures in the Balinese pop music scene. Such new forms of music are integral to the everyday lives of children and young people, and this indicates that the dynamic flow of musical styles currently present in Balinese popular music has expanded the boundaries for children and teenagers of what it means to be "Balinese."

Furthermore, the presence of global influences in Balinese popular music is not the only way in which children and teenagers participate in transnational flows of popular music. Different styles of popular music from many parts of Europe and North America are also very much part of the everyday lives of most Balinese. Whether broadcast on the radio or on television, children come into almost daily contact with such music from a very early age. In particular, foreign, syndicated music programs broadcast on Indonesian television channels—including MTV Asia—are an important source for children and teenagers in Keramas to experience current trends of popular music originating from outside of their island. One conversation about such programs was conducted with Nomber, a 14-year-old male dancer who attended dance lessons at the sanggar in Keramas, in February 2004. It was the Balinese New Year (Galungan) and, as part of the celebrations, a group of eight boys from the sanggar were due to perform the male ceremonial dance Baris Gede at the village temple. I was there to assist the boys with their dance costumes and to accompany the group to the temple to document the performance. As I was helping Nomber with his costume we struck up a conversation about the syndicated American television programAmerican Idol. The program, being shown on Indonesian television at the time, had proved extremely popular with many children at the sanggar. Nomber asked whether or not I had watched the edition of the program broadcast the previous evening. I replied that I had not, but asked whether or not it had been enjoyable. Nomber was enthusiastic in his reply and told me that he had enjoyed it very much. He also said that the program had provided him with a welcome break from his homework; he had been revising for school exams in mathematics and geography. I inquired whether he watched the program every week, but he told me that he only did so if he did not have too much homework. Nomber continued by telling me that he liked to watch the program because a lot of the songs in the show had a good beat; he then qualified his remark by saying that he generally only liked songs with a fast tempo. Next, I asked if he could understand the lyrics of the songs. He replied that he mostly followed the Indonesian subtitles on the television screen. I wondered whether it was important to be able to understand the lyrics in order to like the music. Nomber told me that subtitles were helpful, since the English was too fast for him to follow. After a slight pause he then said that although being able to follow the lyrics of a song was helpful, he just liked to listen to the music. He told me that he could tell by listening to the beat of a song whether it was good or not, and as long as a song had a good catchy beat—one to which you could dance—the words were not really that important to him.

The report of the above conversation encapsulates many of the key issues surrounding the different genres of popular music discussed by my informants in and around Keramas, both during lessons at the dance sanggar and at other times away from the organization. For them, television provides an important and necessary link to local, national, and global forms of popular music. Television programs, such as American Idol and Indonesian spin-off shows (discussed below), enable children and teenagers to access current forms of popular music from outside of their everyday locality. As such, they are exposed not only to external musical influences, but also to associated fashion trends and accessories, which gradually become available in local markets and department stores, such as those in the nearby city of Gianyar. Nomber's comment concerning the importance of being able to understand the words of English pop songs is indicative of many other responses drawn from over 40 informants, which together demonstrate that Balinese children and teenagers do not have to be able to understand the lyrics of a song in order to sing it fully or partially. In addition, because some English language songs are regularly broadcast on radio and television, this provides children and teenagers with frequent opportunities to mimic and repeat the lyrics in a parrot fashion. Such a development also reinforces the increasingly dominant use of the English language in song lyrics and musical expression in Bali. For example, the use and repetition of English language songs on Indonesian television channels has led children and teenagers to pick up certain words and phrases from songs. Slang phrases, such as "In da house" and "Shake that body!" appropriated from particular songs were particularly popular among teenagers. However, those who used them generally did not understand what such phrases meant. Nonetheless, the fact that such phrases have entered the vocabulary of children and teenagers indicates that popular music is having a strong impact on their lives. Nomber's last point concerning the fast tempo of (European and American) pop songs was a topic that arose in many conversations. This is not to indicate that my informants preferred fast tempo songs in favor of slow tempo songs, but it does seem to be an important factor when considering children's and teenagers' song preferences in relation to the music chosen as a backing track for disco dance performances.

Television and the Appropriation of Dangdut Music and Dance in Children's and Teenagers' Disco Dance Routines

Television has had a great impact upon the dissemination of Balinese, Indonesian, and global styles of popular music in Bali. Since its introduction to the island in the late 1970s, not only has television increased notions of modernity and progression, but it has also facilitated the spread of the Indonesian language across the island. Studies concerning the impact of television in Bali have tended to address issues surrounding traditional music and dance, and how the Balinese perceive these performances (Hobart 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002; Hughes-Freeland 1997, 1998). For many Balinese children and teenagers, television enables them to "become aware of the world and outside influences rather than just the local" (Waters 1998, 42). Television provides them with the opportunity to participate in processes of cultural interaction and exchange, which have a direct effect upon their experience of the world. In particular, television allows children and teenagers to become familiar with various styles of local, national, and global genres of popular music and the forms of dance and movement associated with these genres. This point concerning listening and watching various forms of popular music is important because disco dance routines performed by children and teenagers during my fieldwork were heavily influenced by movement styles influenced by and appropriated from the Indonesian genre of popular music, dangdut.

Dangdut first developed in Jakarta among the lower class Javanese during the 1960s, with the music growing out of a form of popular music called orkes Melayu.⁷ Originally derived from Indian, Arab, and Malay folk styles, today dangdut also embraces other global musical styles and incorporates influences from Latin, House, Hip-Hop, and Rhythm and Blues. The genre has become also increasingly popular, so much so that during the 1990s over a third of all record sales in Indonesia were dangdut music (Sen and Hill 2000, 170). Like many Indonesian musical terms, dangdut is an onomatopoeic word derived from the rhythm usually played on the gendang (a pair of bongolike drums tuned to sound like the Indian tabla). Dangdut songs are generally composed in simple quadruple time with the gendang, producing a low "dang" note struck on the fourth beat of the bar and the high "dut" note struck on the first beat of the following bar. Alongside the gendang and a bamboo flute (suling), a typical dangdut ensemble consists of an electric guitar, bass, mandolin, drum kit, and keyboard. However, the real stars of dangdut are the singers who communicate with their audience by singing songs on the topic of love, loss, family matters, and other moral issues.

Performances by major dangdut stars are regularly broadcast across Indonesia on national television channels. In 2003, however, a young singer named Inul Daratista burst onto the dangdut scene and caused national controversy by incorporating sizzling and sexually suggestive dance movements into her performances. Daratista's trademark dance movements—sensual movements of her hips—are called goyang Inul (Inul's swaying) and goyang ngebor (drilling).⁸ Daratista's sexually suggestive hip movements were criticized by fellow dangdut singers, among them Rhoma Irama, and Indonesian Islamic clerics declared that her trademark dance was pornographic and therefore haram, forbidden by Islam. However, many Indonesian liberals believed that Daratista has "forced Indonesians to confront the increasingly sharp struggle in their society between conservative, closed and fundamentalist forces and those that are open, liberal and progressive in their quest to advance democratic principles and practices" (Suryakusuma 2003; see also van Wichelen 2005; Heryanto 2008; Weintraub 2008). Those who defended Daratista, including feminists, intellectuals, journalists, and even politicians, viewed criticisms of her as attempts to revert to the repression of former President Suharto and his methods of banning, blacklisting, and confining those who dared to defy the rules of his regime. Yet various aspects of Indonesian culture are very sensuous and when compared with many traditional performing arts genres, such as the jaipongan dance of West Java, the tayub of Central Java, or joged from Bali, and other established dangdut singers, Inul's dancing does not seem as erotic (see Manuel and Baier 1986; Hellwig 1993, Hughes-Freeland 1993; Lysloff 2002; Arsana 2004).⁹

In Keramas and other surrounding villages, children and teenagers often performed disco dance routines that included movements similar to those performed by Inul Daratista.¹⁰ Television has played a fundamental role in the dissemination of such movements, and the craze associated with Inul Daratista has furthered their popularity.¹¹ Moreover, since forms of Balinese popular music are not really associated with any particular form of onstage dancing or movement, the appropriation of movements such as goyang Inul or ngebor are indicators that children and teenagers not only appropriate national and global genres of popular music, but that they also localize the body movements and dance styles associated with such forms. Nevertheless, the learning and performance practices of disco dances differ from those employed in the transmission of traditional Balinese dance. In the context of traditional Balinese dance, teachers and other adults exercise power over young people. They do this by disciplining the bodies of children and teenagers so that they become "docile" (Foucault 1991). However, in their disco dance performances, children and teenagers usually choreograph their routines themselves and often incorporate movements and dance styles appropriated from popular music performances on television, in particular those associated with dangdut. Although such disco dances may at first appear completely removed from the world of traditional Balinese dance, they are not totally free of adult or societal control because the disco dance routines themselves are, as I will show, influenced by traditional dance practices and aesthetics.

To elaborate upon such themes requires an examination of the ways in which power—in the form of traditional dance—is located within contemporary disco dance routines. The theories of Foucault assist with this analysis arguing that power is not exercised in a wholly negative fashion (power over), but can be used also in a positive way (power to), in as much as power is seen as residing not only in institutions in society, but also in the individual (Foucault 1991). While Foucault's notions of power are useful to my discussion, an interpretation of his concept of heterotopia is even more so. According to Foucault (1986, 24), a heterotopia, a "counter-site" to a utopia, is a place where all "the other real sites that can be found within [a] culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted." Foucault (1986, 24–7) states that a heterotopia has six principles:

1. 1. Heterotopias exist in all cultures.

2. 2. A heterotopia can function in different ways and can be used in more than one way by different individuals.

3. 3. The heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible.

4. 4. Heterotopias are often linked to slices of time.

5. 5. Heterotopias always presume a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and makes them penetrable.

6. 6. Heterotopias have a function in relation to all the space that remains.

Roche (2009), in research conducted with young people in Northern Ireland, applies Foucault's (1986) notion of heterotopia to her examination of the "free house," a concept described by both Catholic and Protestant young people from urban working-class housing estates in the city of Derry as, "a house with no authority figures" (Roche 2009, 69). A free house is supposedly a transgressive and "free" space where young people can come together outside of parental control to indulge in activities that can include the taking of illegal drugs, the consumption of alcohol, and participation in sexual intercourse. Roche likens the free house to a "crisis heterotopia," which according to Foucault is "reserved for individuals, who are, in relation to society and to the human environment in which they live, in a state of crisis" (Roche 2009, 83; Foucault 1986, 24). Among these individuals in crisis, Foucault includes adolescents, menstruating women, and pregnant women. Roche (2009) examines the state of young adults progressing through their lives and tells how, far from being a free space outside adult control, young people bring with them into the free house many of the conservative morals of Northern Irish society. In light of this fact, Roche concludes that the Northern Irish free house is not really a "free" space unconnected to the adult world. Instead, the free house can be a place to transgress, but it does not always have to involve acts of transgression. A heterotopia, as in the case of the Northern Irish free house, is then a space that carries with it some of the norms and rules from society, but it is also a space where norms and rules can be negotiated, transgressed, or left behind. Such a course of action, therefore, implies that a heterotopia is a space in which a process of "alternate social ordering" may occur (cf. Hetherington 1997).

Foucault's (1986) notion of heterotopia provides a useful framework to my discussion in order to understand the role of disco dance performances in the lives of children and teenagers. My discussion centers upon the notion that the traditional Balinese stage can be used as a place for the performance of traditional dance as well as for disco dance routines performed by children and teenagers. Disco dance routines are usually performed at community social events such as bazaars or fund-raising events. At such events, traditional dances almost always precede and follow disco dance performances. The "sandwiching" of disco dance routines in this way serves to highlight the routines as "space[s] in which alternative social ordering is performed" (Hetherington 1997, 32). Acknowledging such a process of alternative social ordering by young Balinese is important because it reveals how children and teenagers localize various genres of popular music and their associated dance and/or other forms of movement within an established, "traditional" performance context. This is a sophisticated process because the disco dance routine must "function in relation to all the space that remains" (Foucault 1986, 27), namely, the traditional Balinese stage. Thus, when children and teenagers perform disco dance routines they reveal a process of "alternative representation of spatial and social relations" (Hetherington 1997, 8), and create, what I term, "dance heterotopia." The term dance heterotopia refers to the process of children and teenagers appropriating the Balinese stage as a performance site for their disco dance routines. In doing so, disco dance routines serve as heterotopic spaces wherein children and teenagers engage in processes of alternative social ordering and give new meaning to a stage designed for the performance of traditional dance.

By using the term dance heterotopia it is not my intention, though, to infer that the Balinese children and teenagers who perform disco dance routines are "in a state of crisis" (Foucault 1986, 24), as Roche does in her analysis of the Northern Irish "free house" (2009). However, similar to the young people in Roche's study, the Balinese children and teenagers who participate in disco dance routines view these performances as adult-free spaces, where they can express themselves without the same restrictions, controls, or limits found in traditional dance.¹² However, when children and teenagers perform disco dance routines, not only do they localize national and global forms of popular music, but they also combine these influences with traditional dance aesthetics. Consequently, disco dance routines are "counter-sites" (Foucault 1986, 24); the routines simultaneously represent aspects of local tradition while enabling the localization of national and global music and dance influences. For although adults do not generally exercise power over the ways in which children and teenagers choreograph and perform their disco dance routines, children and teenagers, nevertheless, bring music, dance, and societal influences into the spaces wherein they perform disco dance routines. In this way, dance heterotopia do not signify a "clean break" (Baulch 2007, 183) from traditional forms of Balinese dance simply because they do not follow an established pattern of continuity and change (Harnish 2005, 119; Vickers 1996). Instead, they demonstrate how children and teenagers attempt to reconnect or combine various cultural influences and imbue them with local meaning. By moving on to describe the dance movements and the costumes and makeup children and teenagers wear in performance, I will now illustrate how these disco "dance heterotopia" function in relation to Balinese village life.

Balinese Children's and Teenagers' Disco Dance Routines

As noted above, disco dance routines by children and teenagers in Bali generally take place alongside performances of traditional dances at community organized events (sometimes referred to as pentas), often organized and held in community halls (bale banjar). In these venues, young people perform their disco dance routines on a stage defined (by adults) for the performance of traditional dance. However, during a disco dance performance, this space changes because children and teenagers utilize the stage in a different way. In disco dance performances, children and teenagers create their own dance heterotopia in which they, and not adults, have more control over their dance performance. The type of disco dancing performances described by children and teenagers as "disco" are always choreographed group dances, based on meticulous rehearsals at which great attention is paid to detail concerning movement, group cohesiveness, and costume. As such details are also important for traditional dance, in effect, Balinese "disco" dancing is a "new" performance genre grounded upon traditional practices and aesthetics (cf. Harnish 2005; Vickers 1996). In these performances the dancing is set and regimented and is very different from its Western disco counterpart. Individual expression is permitted to a certain degree, but it is ultimately controlled within the group. The performance of these choreographed routines also contributes to the ability of children and teenagers to create a dance heterotopia wherein they can exercise a greater degree of power and control over their dancing than would be possible in the adult-controlled world of Balinese traditional dance. Like traditional dances, disco routines are intended for performance in front of an audience, but the audience is not meant to participate. Audiences sometimes clap their hands in time with the music that accompanies the routines, but they are not supposed to get up to dance or join in with the performers on stage. This contrasts with audiences at dangdut concerts who are expected to dance while watching a performance (cf. Wallach 2002a, 297). Though on first impression the music and dance movements used in these routines may appear new and modern, many of these routines incorporate specific elements from traditional dance. As a result, disco dance performances enable children and teenagers to create and perform their own popular forms of dance alongside traditional performances. This, in turn, allows children and teenagers the opportunity to have a greater degree of control over the audience.

In addition to the incorporation of traditional performance practices and aesthetics into their disco dance routines, children and teenagers also use traditional pedagogic practices to learn and teach disco routines to and from each other. Usually one or two individuals are responsible for teaching a routine to the others involved in a group. These individuals demonstrate movements and sequences that are then copied by the others in the group. In performance, these individuals usually dance toward the front of the stage to enable those who are less experienced to watch their movements. This element of the learning process of disco dance routines is similar to that used in traditional dance lessons, where the teacher demonstrates movements by dancing at the front of a class. By applying the same method of learning traditional dance to disco routines, children and teenagers can learn the choreography for a performance in a matter of weeks. Even though many of the children and teenagers involved in these performances attend traditional dance lessons, or have many years of training and performance behind them, such experience is not essential in order for individuals to participate and learn disco dance routines with their friends. Consequently, those with little or no traditional dance experience are able to participate in disco dance performances. It should, nevertheless, be pointed out that the "leaders" in the majority of disco dance groups are often steeped in traditional dance. The participatory approach advocated by children and teenagers in their disco dance routines was common practice for the learning of particular temple dances, which were learned by means of imitation and performed during religious ceremonies. However, following the introduction of Western-style tertiary dance institutions and teaching methods to the island in the 1960s and 1970s, children and young people with little traditional dance experience in Keramas are no longer encouraged to dance in religious contexts, and are sometimes deliberately excluded from dancing at such events.

Younger children, who participate in disco dancing with their friends, sometimes receive some help from parents or older siblings when choreographing their routines. In contrast, teenagers receive no such assistance and are responsible for the choreographic content of their routines. The learning and rehearsal process for routines is not dissimilar to traditional methods: step sequences and movements are learned and repeated with the music until they are memorized (McIntosh forthcoming). The learning process, however, is not as strict as the teacher–pupil relationship central to the learning of Balinese dance where the dance teacher has complete control. Instead, the organization of these groups by children and teenagers is similar to that found in other community clubs formed to carry out specific tasks (seka) where the importance of the group rather than the individual is stressed. Thus, although one or two individuals in a group may be better dancers than the others, the group is ultimately responsible for the choreography and success of a routine. As a result, everyone involved is made to feel as if they have a say in the overall process (Keeler 1975, 121). Similarly, the disco "dance heterotopia"—which I am proposing—facilitates, and allows for, the empowerment of children and teenagers. In this way children and teenagers involved in the performance of disco dance routines realize a level of interdependence and flexibility that they rarely, if ever, achieve when learning and performing traditional dance. In traditional dance, performers are expected to execute steps and movements in an appropriate manner and in a style that is deemed acceptable by a dance teacher. However, in disco dancing children and teenagers are responsible ultimately for the music, content, and style of a routine and in this way they exercise a greater degree of power over their performance. In the remainder of the article I provide ethnographic accounts of three disco dance routines performed by children and teenagers in the villages of Tulikup and Keramas, in the district of Gianyar. I will first describe the three performances before discussing how young people push at the boundaries of what is considered sexually acceptable in such performances.

Disco Dance Performances by Children in Tulikup

On Saturday, July 10, 2004, at a community hall in the village of Tulikup, an evening's entertainment of traditional music and dance was well underway. I had made the 25-minute motorcycle ride from Keramas to watch a Balinese friend perform. However, on my arrival I learned that he would not dance until much later in the evening. In the interim, I joined the hundreds of other people gathered inside and all around the community hall to watch young children perform traditional dances. After an hour or so, the mood in the pavilion changed when successive groups of children came onto the stage to perform disco dance routines. These routines were very different from the traditional dances that had preceded them. The recorded sounds of the gamelan dance accompaniment were replaced by various pop beats, and the traditional dance steps, movements, and costumes—that restrict the movement of the body—gave way to fashionable clothes, popular dance moves, and liberal use of the body.

One notable disco dance performance involved three girls between the ages of 10 and 12. They all wore short pleated, checked skirts, fashion belts tied around their waists, matching vests, and white socks. They performed a disco routine to two European pop songs. The first song, "Kiss When the Sun Don't Shine," was originally a smash hit in 2000 for the European dance-pop troupe the Vengaboys. The second song, "Roses are Red," was a hit in 1996 for the Danish/Norwegian band Aqua. The songs, though sung in English, were very similar to many recent dance-orientated dangdut tracks. The rhythmic drive of the song "Roses Are Red" meant that the girls could combine and incorporate dance elements from dangdut into their routine. Similar step and movement patterns were repeated throughout the two tracks with a substantial amount of movement around the stage. In addition, the three young girls danced in numerous formations found in traditional dance, including in straight lines facing the audience and across the stage, and in a V-shape. The girls danced in unison for the majority of the performance, but there were occasional moments where each one walked to the front of the stage and performed a short solo (see Figure 1). Included in these solos were several moves influenced by dangdut, such as the swaying hip movement (goyang Inul). By combining traditional Balinese dance formations and movements drawn from popular music, the girls in the above example illustrate Foucault's (1986, 27) notion of a heterotopia where its function relates "to all the space that remains." The girls, when they performed disco, were not free from the influence of traditional dance. Instead, when they danced they combined both their previous experiences of traditional and popular dance genres in performance. And although the routine appeared to be "free," as in Roche's (2009) example of the Northern Irish free house, this is not the case because the girls brought with them, and incorporated into their performance, elements and practices drawn from traditional Balinese dance.

Figure 1.

Three girls perform their disco dance routine in Tulikup (photograph by the author).

Later, eight younger children, four girls and four boys, between the ages of six and ten, danced to the title song of a highly successful television show, Indosiar's Akademi Fantasi (Fantasy Academy), broadcast on the Indonesian television channel Indosiar. Indosiar's Fantasy Academy and its rival program Indonesian Idol, broadcast on the television channel Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI), were popular music talent contests throughout the time of my fieldwork (see also Coutas 2008). During the twice-weekly editions of each program, contestants performed cover versions of popular songs and the public voted for their favorite performer via mobile phone. A massive marketing and merchandising campaign, including the release of music cassettes, compact discs and video compact disc recordings, T-shirts, and posters and pens, had accompanied each show. Both shows were based on the original British Pop Idol program and its American subsidiary, American Idol.

As one of many syndicated American and European programs on Indonesian television, Pop Idol America was broadcast throughout Indonesia in English with Indonesian subtitles. As a result, Simon Cowell, the record producer and judge on the British and American versions of the show, was every bit a household name in Indonesia as he was in the United Kingdom and the United States. Both shows were extremely popular and were compulsive viewing for children, teenagers, and adults alike. However, it was the title song "Menuju Pencak" (Reach for the Top) from Indosiar's Fantasy Academy that became a pan-Indonesian smash hit. The song was so popular that at many Balinese traditional dance performances it had become commonplace for a group of children to come onto the stage and dance to it. The song was a typical example of the Indonesian pop style: a fusion of mainly American and European pop and rock styles with a little Bollywood and Malaysian popular music in the mix. The key to the song's instant and prolonged success had been that it was integral to the television show Fantasy Academy, and, as a result, was regularly broadcast from Jakarta into homes across Indonesia.

The children who performed to the theme song from Indosiar's Fantasy Academy in Tulikup wore coordinated costumes, like the three girls who had performed to the preceding European popular dance songs. The boys wore blue jeans, pink, short-sleeved T-shirts, and black cloth headdresses, while the girls wore brightly colored shorts, white T-shirts, shoulder capes, drop earrings, and white socks. All of the children wore sneakers in contrast to the traditional dancers who performed in bare feet. The children's costumes reflected popular street fashion and the loose clothing meant that they were able to move their bodies more freely than if they had been wearing traditional dance costumes. The children performed repeated step sequences based upon traditional dance formations, including straight lines and V-shaped configurations, while also performing movements appropriated from popular music programs, such as Fantasy Academy, and from live pop concerts. These included several movements drawn from dangdut (see Figure 2), which the children also performed when they danced to a dangdut track following the conclusion of the title song from Indosiar's Fantasy Academy. When the children performed these movements the audience screamed and whooped. Throughout the performance a mirrored disco ball turned and caught the colored lights as they flashed continuously from the roof of the pavilion. The use of colored lights and a mirror ball also served to reconfigure the space of the stage and to demarcate disco dance routines from the traditional dance performances.

Both of these routines are significant in the way that they utilize music originating from outside Bali (and Indonesia) and music specifically produced for television. In addition, they show how young children attempt to incorporate movements specifically associated with the dangdut singer Inul Daratista into their performances. Incorporating, as they do, what could be interpreted as risqué dance movements, it is interesting to note that parents, along with the rest of the audience, enthusiastically clap along with and cheer their children when they take to the stage. Such encouragement and support serves to legitimize children's disco dance performances. Furthermore, it could be said that, due to the consent and approval of parents, disco dance routines have now become an activity in which it is acceptable for Balinese children to participate. The positive reaction of parents and those in the audience to such routines is significant because it demonstrates how, through their disco dance performances, children and teenagers are able to create and control their own dance heterotopia which, in turn, function in relation to other aspects of village life. Having provided descriptions of disco dance performances by children in Tulikup, I will now describe a disco dance routine performed by teenagers in the village of Keramas in order to show how they incorporate dangdut movements into their performances.

Figure 2.

Young boys and girls perform the movement goyang Inul (Inul's swaying) during a disco dance routine in Tulikup (photograph by the author).

A Disco Dance Performance by Teenagers in Keramas

On Monday, August 16, 2004, I attended an evening performance event in Keramas, which was similar to that in Tulikup described above. The stage in the community hall was decorated with traditional offerings and decorations lined the edges of the stage; a langse (split curtain) hung in front of a doorway that led to a backstage area through which the performers entered and exited the stage. On either side of the curtain, facing the audience, loudspeakers amplified the music for each dance performance; flashing lights, on the back wall, constantly flickered and changed from one color to the next, from red to yellow, from green to blue. After a performance of the traditional dance sekar ibing, but before the applause from the audience had died away, an upbeat pop song blared out from the loudspeakers. At the same time, five teenagers—four females and a male between the ages of 16 and 18—entered through the curtain from the backstage area and began to dance. The male teenager was Tunic, the dance assistant from the dance sanggar in Keramas. The girls wore tight, cropped blue jeans, while Tunic wore loose, black and white checked pants. Everyone had on a skintight, red T-shirt and from time to time the audience could clearly see the dancers' stomachs as they moved. Tunic sported a lime green sweatband around his forehead; the girls wore their hair in ponytails. The makeup worn by the teenagers was similar to, but not as heavy as, that worn by traditional dancers. Gold glitter, sprinkled across the dancers' faces, forearms, and in their hair, added an extra sense of glamour and fun to the performance. The dancers wore white ankle socks and sneakers to complete the look.

The group performed a routine to two dangdut songs. The first song, "Cinta Harus Ada Rindu" (Love Has to Have Longing), was in the more traditional dangdut style. However, the second song, "Pengertian" (Understanding), was in a style called remix dangdut. Remix dangdut is a subgenre of dangdut, which combines "familiar melodies and musical textures with the sounds and production values of global electronic dance music" (Wallach 2004). Consequently, the tempo of the second song was slightly faster than that of the first and the percussion was more hard-edged and dance orientated. It also included snippets of American slang, including "In da house," "Everybody gonna let this out!" "Work that body!" and "Watch out!" It is unlikely that the audience would have understood these phrases. Nonetheless, their inclusion served to further connect the song to more global popular forms, in particular to American and European popular music genres.

Like the children in Tulikup, the teenagers in Keramas performed rehearsed steps and movements while moving from one formation to another. These moves were repeated every time different musical sections recurred. However, the performance by the teenagers was much slicker and complex, and the steps and movements were generally executed together with greater fluency. Throughout the performance, Tunic performed movements more associated with female dangdut performers and, unusually for a male dancer in this kind of group, was the most sexually explicit in the use of his body. The group performed sensuous and risqué movements in the style of the singer Inul Daratista (see Figure 3). At one point, the dancers raised their arms above their heads and gyrated their hips while corkscrewing up and down. As the dancers rotated, they lowered their bodies, bending their knees. This caused the pelvis thrusts of each dancer to become deeper and more exaggerated. Every time these and other similar movements were performed, they were received with uproar from the audience, with applause, loud shouts, gasps, and wolf whistles.

Figure 3.

Teenagers in Keramas perform the movement goyang Inul (Inul's swaying) during a disco dance routine (photograph by the author).

A specific musical feature, a glissando, recurred several times throughout the dangdut remix song.¹³ With each glissando, the dancers performed a variation of the goyang Inul movement. At the start of the glissando, the dancers pushed their shoulders back while thrusting their pelvis forward, dropping the knees, causing their buttocks to stick out behind them as if they were almost in a sitting position with their shoulders forward; the kinesthetic force of dropping the knees then helped the dancers to push their shoulders back, enabling them to straighten up once more. The flowing, wavelike movement of the dancers' bodies perfectly encapsulated the upward sweep of the glissando, which started at a low pitch and quickly ascended to a very high pitch.

However, despite the obvious influences of dangdut, there were also many strong choreographic references to traditional Balinese dance in the routine. Such references demonstrate that although teenagers in Keramas were able to create a space for their own disco dance performance, their routine is not as free of adult influence as they would perhaps think. During the routine the teenagers regularly danced in a V-shaped formation (see Figure 4). This is found in traditional, female, welcome dances, such as a Pendet and Panyembrama. At times, Tunic also moved forward from the back of the stage and stood in a line with the two dancers at the front. When this occurred, the two dancers at the back were visible in the spaces in between the three front dancers. This formation is regularly found in traditional dances performed for secular entertainment purposes. Such dances are commonly known in Bali and are learned by children in the elementary and intermediate classes at the dance sanggar in Keramas, and in similar organizations across the island. In addition, they are also regularly broadcast on the Balinese television channel (Bali TV). It is no coincidence, since Tunic regularly teaches these dances, that elements from them are found in the choreography for the disco dance routine.

Figure 4.

Teenagers in Keramas dancing in a V-formation (photograph by the author).

At the end of the routine, the five teenagers divided into two groups—a group of three and a group of two. The groups mirrored each other and moved in an ombak segara (S-shape)—a formation commonly used as means for traditional dancers to exit the stage. This movement is regularly found at the end of traditional, female, welcome dances, such as Panyembrama. The group of three then headed toward the curtain and the two other dancers joined the end of the line and went off stage. The constant beat of the music stopped abruptly and applause broke out from the audience as the lights on the back wall of the stage continued to flash from one bright color to the next. The above example of teenagers performing a disco dance routine in Keramas exemplifies Foucault's (1986, 23–7) notion of a heterotopia. From the description it can clearly be seen that the teenagers combine both traditional and popular disco dance movements. Although in performance the teenagers claim the traditional stage as their own and transform it through their dancing of popular dance movements, the "dance heterotopia" of the teenagers still functions in relation to all the space that surrounds it. It does not exist in isolation and this is demonstrated by the way in which the teenagers' disco dance routine is heavily influenced by practices and aesthetics drawn from traditional Balinese dance, including traditional dance formations, group cohesiveness, and an emphasis on presentation.

Localizing Popular Music in Balinese Disco Dance Performance

The examples of disco dancing described above are not like their Western counterparts. In Western contexts, disco dancing is thought to be a personal style of performance where individuals dance with their bodies as a way to learn from each other or as a way to express themselves. In Bali, contexts for this style of disco dancing do exist, but they are generally located in parts of the island that cater to Western tourists, such as in the southern resorts of Kuta, Seminyak, Legian, and Nusa Dua. The village of Ubud, in the administrative district of Gianyar, regarded by many tourists as the "cultural heart" of the island, also has venues for disco dancing. However, these venues tend to be frequented by tourists and those who belong to the Western expatriate community. Balinese male youths make up the minority of clients in these contexts, primarily because they cannot afford the relatively high price of alcoholic drinks to enable them to stay in these bars. The freestyle disco dancing that occurs in the tourist areas infrequently appears in local village contexts at community-organized events called bazar banjar (bazaars). Once, at such an event in Keramas, I witnessed a group of young men from the village disco dancing at the far end of the community hall. There were many teenage girls at the event, but none of them got up to dance. Instead, they sat resolutely huddled in groups around small tables. Four male teenagers from the sanggar accompanied me to the bazaar; all of them were experienced traditional dancers who, from time to time, also performed disco routines. Asked whether or not they wanted to get up and join in, the four laughed and said they did not want to dance. They explained to me that although they performed disco dance routines on stage, they would never get up and dance in this setting. One teenager told me that the young men dancing looked bodoh (stupid); another said that the only reason the young men were up dancing was because they were mabuk (drunk).

All of the teenagers agreed that in such a context they were not tidak berani (brave enough) to get up and dance because they were not accustomed to disco dancing in such a context. Moreover, because the context was not familiar, it impeded the teenagers' confidence and ability to get up and dance. They did not want to be singled out in any way or laughed at by those sitting down in the pavilion, most of whom were secretly laughing at the drunken antics of the small group of young men as they attempted to maintain their balance while dancing. Furthermore, the teenagers told me that they were not used to dancing in such a "freestyle" and unpredictable manner. The fact that they did not feel comfortable to get up and dance in their own village ward implies a notion of where, and in what context, such dancing is acceptable. For children and teenagers, public displays of disco dancing are confined to pre-choreographed routines that are performed, like traditional dances, on a stage in front of an audience. I would also suggest that not having a "stage" upon which to perform is a utopia too far for many of those involved in disco dance performances (cf. Foucault 1986, 24). Therefore, the context in which children and teenagers perform their disco dance routines is integral to their ability to successfully create and control their own disco dance heterotopia.¹⁴

Children and teenagers demonstrate the control they have over their performances by performing movements that are acceptable to, and expected by, an audience. However, they also demonstrate control by performing movements that are unexpected and not normally performed by traditional dancers. Children and teenagers can quickly shock an audience by performing movements that are regarded as being risqué. A good example of this is the inclusion of the movement goyang Inul. This movement was alluded to, with varying degrees of success, in disco dance routines performed by the three groups outlined above. Many children and teenagers also told me that they included the movement in a routine simply because its performance would ensure a strong reaction from an audience. Therefore, despite obvious differences concerning how it is performed, children and teenagers include the goyang Inul movement in their routines in order to elicit the desired response from the audience. The attempts by children to incorporate the movements of Inul Daratista into their performances were, generally, more innocent than when teenagers performed the same movements. Similarly, audience reactions also differed to the performance of these movements. The response of audiences was not as intense in relation to the attempts made by children to incorporate such movements into their routines. However, the more explicit versions of these movements performed by teenagers were greeted with a frenzied response. The differences in the execution of these movements seem to suggest that there are various levels of disco dance routines just as there are in the learning of traditional dance, although the levels in the learning of traditional dance are formed and dictated by the dance teachers (McIntosh forthcoming).

The ability of teenagers to encode more sexually explicit material into their performances demonstrates that they are able to elicit greater responses from the audience. As part of this process, teenagers also manipulate their facial expressions to reinforce the provocative nature of the dance movements they perform. This practice is borrowed from dangdut and, just like the inclusion of movements such as goyang Inul, is used as a performance technique to both control and educe reactions from an audience (cf. Pioquinto 1995, 81). Children and teenagers strategically use these performance techniques to achieve the maximum reaction possible from an audience. Generally, movements like the goyang Inul are limited within a routine but when they do occur, they contrast with the more general step sequences that precede or follow their execution. Thus, these risqué movements stand out from the rest of the routine by causing shock or titillation among the members of the audience. Therefore, it appears that teenagers are more able to draw out these responses from an audience when compared with younger children.

On the one hand, the inclusion of what could be deemed sexually explicit material in disco dance performances achieves the aim of obtaining the desired response from the audience. On the other hand, however, the execution of these movements in a routine cannot be too explicit or they will not be acceptable to an audience. This, in turn, highlights how the performance of excess sexual movements by teenagers could breach the dance heterotopia and lead to adult intervention. Children and teenagers are aware of this risk. Tunic, for example, commented that it was perfectly acceptable to perform movements like the goyang Inul in disco routines because the audience members watch similar performances on television. However, he and the other members of his group would not want to perform these movements in too provocative a manner because this could be seen as embarrassing and would probably lead to a reprimand concerning their conduct from their parents and elders. In this way, children and teenagers are aware of the fact that they are constantly pushing at the boundaries of what is socially acceptable when they borrow, reference, or replicate sexualized movements from dangdut. However, when they do so they are also aware that they have to control their bodies so as not to embarrass themselves, or perform in a manner that is deemed socially unacceptable by the wider community.

Conclusion

This article has examined disco dance performances to show how Balinese children and teenagers create what I term "dance heterotopia" (after Foucault 1986). These dance heterotopia are "spaces of alternate ordering" (cf. Hetherington 1997) wherein children and teenagers acknowledge the power exercised by adults in disciplining their bodies, by drawing upon and incorporating elements from traditional dances, while at the same challenging the set rules by the use of more sexual and provocative dance movements borrowed from genres such as dangdut. I have also shown how teenagers in Keramas, and to a lesser extent children in Tulikup, attempt to localize national and global forms of popular music through a process that combines or fuses such influences with traditional dance practices and aesthetics. Generally, young people choose which of these elements to combine in their performance. From my observations, they do this by combining modern, alternative disco beats and movements with traditional choreographic sequences, costume, and makeup elements. Despite the fact that the music and dance movements are different, especially when compared with those found in traditional performances, disco dance routines are intrinsically based on practices integral to Balinese dance. Parallels can also be drawn concerning the use of traditional pedagogic techniques when learning disco dance routines, the importance placed on costume and makeup, the interrelatedness of music and dance, and the significance of group dynamics in performance.

By highlighting the prominence of dance movements, such as the hip gyrating goyang Inul, drawn from dangdut, I have also provided an insight into how television presents children and teenagers with an opportunity musically and kinesthetically to view the world outside of Bali and Indonesia. And whereas the learning of Balinese dance is a formal activity between a child and his or her teacher, children and teenagers informally learn about the majority of music and movements they use in their disco dance routines from television. Without a doubt, television has had—and I predict will continue to have—a great impact on the dissemination of popular music in Bali. Local, national, and global genres of popular music are now integral to everyday life, and television makes it possible to view the dance styles that accompany these musical genres. Thus, most people who live in Bali, in urban and rural contexts, now have access to music and dance forms that are rarely, if ever, performed in local (village) settings.

Children and teenagers actively incorporate national and global forms of popular music via the media into their disco dance performances. When they do this they give new local meaning to transnational cultural elements. Balinese children and teenagers do not passively accept and simply copy the external influences that they absorb, notably from watching television. Nor do they exactly duplicate Western forms of disco dancing or copy movements from televised dangdut performances. Instead, by combining various genres of popular music and dance styles with particular Balinese dance aesthetics, they localize national and global forms of popular music and dance in performance. By combining these elements, young people create their own disco dance heterotopia. Moreover, the way in which they do this does not represent a "disconnect" from the traditional process of continuity and change (cf. Harnish 2005), but readily illustrates how children and teenagers actively "reconnect" and assimilate external music and dance influences with traditional music and dance forms. They do this by using the traditional stage, an adult-defined performance space, in order to present an alternative form of social ordering (Hetherington 1997). When performing disco dance routines, children and teenagers do not attempt to reposition themselves on the periphery of Balinese society, like those involved in the Balinese death/thrash metal and punk scenes (Baulch 2002, 2003, 2007). Instead, by dancing at the very heart of village life, children and teenagers have the opportunity "to 'physically' comprehend" through their own disco dance performances "the musical influences flooding in from the West" (Laskewicz 2004, 196).

The disco dance heterotopia prevails as a space and a process for both resistance and empowerment precisely because it is situated in the village setting, a site of tradition that is maintained and observed by the community. As such, disco dance heterotopia "relates to all the space that remains" (Foucault 1986, 27). The disco dance routines performed by children and teenagers described in this article, and others like them, are successful and acceptable to Balinese audiences because external influences are combined with and mediated according to local performance aesthetics. The children and teenagers highlighted in this article do not attempt to adopt such music and dance forms in order to reposition themselves in opposition to the mainstay of Balinese society, as is the case of Balinese youths and appropriation of global forms such as reggae and death/thrash metal and punk (Baulch 2007). Instead, disco dance routines provide empirical evidence of where children and teenagers find themselves at a specific moment in time. By means of their performance, children and teenagers create a heterotopia in which they can perform an acceptable hybridized dance form that is simultaneously new, modern, and "Balinese." And although such dance heterotopia are not totally free of adult control, they allow children and teenagers a degree of power and creativity not afforded to them in the sphere of traditional dance performance.