With the twenty-first century rapidly approaching, Indonesia is faced with a growing pressure to move towards modern development. Dance, especially prominent in Indonesian culture, is in no way exempt from this industry. There are an increasing number of tourist dance performances these days, especially in Bali.
Indonesian dance is in a liminal state between tradition and modernity.
Since dance is forever changing to fit the needs and expressions of the people, it is hard to know exactly how influential tourism really is. In all traditional arts there exists a kind of understanding between the artist and audience as to the purpose of the art form, a shared set of assumptions . . . Tradition is a matter of performer and audience relationship which tourism certainly shapes and changes, yet it is also the people to whom the tradition belongs that also bring about change. Tourism was first introduced to Indonesia in 1908, but it was not until President Suharto's New Order government encouraged Western interest that the tourist industry boomed. As a result, the government was faced with the task of defining, and thus limiting, what would be accessible to tourists.