FESTIVAL DANCERS

Gamelan Sekar Jaya

2012 PERFORMANCE

TITLES:
Lambang to Bungur (Pusaka Sunda)
Bulan Tumanggal (Pusaka Sunda)
Legong Somia (Gamelan Sekar Jaya)
Kelanguan (Gamelan Sekar Jaya)
Tari Merak / Tari Topeng Rahwana (Pusaka Sunda)
Kerjasama (Pak Burhan Sukarma and Pak Dewa Berata)
Gagak Lumayung (Pusaka Sunda)
Tari Legong Pengeleb (Gamelan Sekar Jaya)
Sangkala (Pusaka Sunda)
And the world premiere of: Bayangan Jiwa (“the spirit’s image” or “the imagination of the spirit”) a work for dance, shadow, semarandana, and gender wayang. The piece by Dewa Berata and Emiko Saraswati Susilo investigates how childlike playfulness, physical and spiritual training, and divine inspiration come together in the body and spirit of dancers and musicians as the soul searches for a connection to its eternal self. The piece draws from a rich and dynamic repertoire of movement that explores the wide range of human characters—feminine and masculine, lyrical and powerful—each distinct and unique and yet deeply connected to one another.

GAMELAN SEKAR JAYA PERFORMERS: Ni Luh Andarawati, Sean Aquino, David Aue (Gong Kebyar Coordinator), Dan Bales, Brian Baumbusch, Tim Black, Alexis Brayton, Clive Brown, Lauren Buckley-Miller, Marianna Cherry, Phil Cox, Anna Deering, Bea Deering, Tom Deering, Carla Fabrizio (Assisting Teacher), Sara Gambina-Belknap, (GSJ General Manager), Ed Garcia (Angklung Coordinator), Gregory Ghent, Darren Gibbs, Evan Gilman (Vice President), Matt Gleeson, Lisa Gold (Gender Wayang Coordinator), Barbara Golden, Lisa Graciano, Todd Greenspan (Treasurer), Reiko Hasegawa, Zachary Hejny, Nina Herlina, Andrej Hronco (Gong Kebyar Coordinator), Steve Johnson (Angklung Coordinator), Colum Keelaghan, Susan Lamberth (Dance Coordinator), Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti, Debbie Lloyd, Lydia Martín, Paul Miller, Mudita Nisker (Member-at-large), Rose Nisker (President), Keenan Pepper, Ellen Perlman (Secretary), I Made Putrayasa, Dewa Putu Berata (Guest Music Director), Emily Rolph, Paddy Sandino (Member-at-Large), Dewa Gde Sanjaya, Emiko Saraswati Susilo (Director, Guest Dance Director), Monali Varaiya (Secretary, Semaradana Volunteer Coordinator), Nia Vitale, Wayne Vitale (Assisting Teacher), Sarah Willner, Kim Workman, Rotrease Yates
PUSAKA SUNDA PERFORMERS: Ed Garcia, Ika, Daniel Kelley, Danni Redding Lapuz, Ray Lapuz, Margot Lederer Prado, Gretchen McPherson, Kenneth
Miller, Rieri Ramdani, Olivia Sears, Henry Spiller, Rae Ann Stahl, Ariana Suchranudin, Burhan Sukarma

This performance is a joyful coming together of two excellent and well-established Bay Area gamelan* ensembles. Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Pusaka Sunda present new and traditional works for Balinese gamelan semarandana, angklung, gender wayang & dance, and Sundanese gamelan degung and dance.

About Pusaka Sunda:
Burhan Sukarma was born and raised in the West Javanese city of Karawang. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became one of the most influential Sundanese musicians of his generation, and quite literally set the standard for the generations of suling players that followed him. In 1988, Burhan relocated permanently to San Jose, California, where he encountered a small group of American musicians who were interested in Sundaneseperforming arts. With the help of Rae Ann Stahl, he began to coalesce a performing gamelan group to bring to fruition the many ideas he had for adapting, rearranging, and recomposing the materials of traditional Sundanese music. He named the group Pusaka Sunda (“Sundanese heirloom”) to emphasize his vision of the group as both a continuation of Sundanese tradition and as a symbol of his own Sundanese identity in a new country.

2011 PERFORMANCE

TITLE: Teruna Jaya (Victorious Youth)
GENRE: Kebyar
COMPOSER/ARRANGER: I Gede Manik
GUEST DANCE TEACHER: Ni Luh Andarawati
GUEST MUSICAL DIRECTOR: I Made Arnawa
DANCERS: Ni Luh Andarawati, Nina Herlina, Maria Omo
MUSICIANS: David Aue, Alexis Brayton, Phil Cox, Tom Deering, Bea Deering, Carla Fabrizio, Sara Gambina-Belknap, Ed Garcia, Evan Gilman, Matthew Gleeson, Lisa Gold, Todd Greenspan, Maddie Hogan, Andrej Hronco, Steve Johnson, Debbie Lloyd, Lydia Martin, Mudita Nisker, Keenan Pepper, Ellen Perlman, Emily Rolph, Joseph Paddy Sandino, Ansel Schmidt (gong coordinator), Wayne Vitale (assistant teacher), Sarah Willner, Ben Zadan

Classical Balinese dance has three genders: male, female, and—honoring human complexity—androgynous. Teruna Jaya—Victorious Youth, is a beloved masterpiece in the androgynous bebancihan style. Three female dancers depict a volatile and moody character: a young man going through puberty. The piece was created in the 1950s by Gede Manik from North Bali. The character quickly became popular, regions adapted the dance, and it became a virtuosic piece. Putting on the costume takes about two hours, with layers of gold-painted cloth, leather, and male make-up. The headdress is a masculine style, as is the
loose-fitting kamben sarong.

The Indonesian gamelan orchestra has bronze, iron, wood, and/or bamboo percussion instruments, and from two to thirty players. Today’s performance is drawn from the villages of Pengosekan and Pegosek in South Central Bali, areas known for intricate drumming and dance. The musicians are said to marry their instruments and fellow performers: and the performers communicate intimately in every nuance of movement and sound, rhythm, tempo, and emotion. The musicians play as fast as they can, between each others’ beats, while the low-toned kebyar gong outlines the structure.

Several teachers worked with Gamelan Sekar Jaya to bring this piece to the stage, primarily: Ni Luh Andarawati, beloved teacher and featured soloist; I Made Arnawa, internationally revered composer and spiritual leader; I Dewa Putu Berata, renowned performer and teacher; and I Ketut Wirtawan, renowned Balinese dancer, musician, vocalist, puppeteer, painter, and master of the complicated dance-drama form, gambuh.

Thanks to Bali Advisor (www.BaliAdvisor.com) and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts for their support in making this piece possible.

2009 PERFORMANCE

Title: Subak
Choreographer: I Made Moja
Guest Dance Director: Emiko Sarawati Susilo
Composer: I Dewa Putu Berata
Jegog Ensemble Coordinators: Kathy Bouvier and Samuel Wantman
Dancers: Sean Aquino, Anna Deering, Nina Herlina, Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti, I Made Moja, Rose Nisker, Maria Omo, Gayatri Saldivar, Emiko Sarawati Susilo, Samara Lotri Tana
Musicians: Dan Bales, Scott Barnes, I Dewa Putu Berata, Susanna Benningfield, , Kathy Bouvier, Alexis Brayton, Phil Cox, Matthew Gleeson, Barbara Golden, Diana Graue, John Noble, Laurel Pardue, Heather Sansky, Monina Sen, Samuel Wantman, Kwan Wong

The dance Subak is a new work by I Made Moja, inspired by and in honor of Goddess Dewi Sri Laksmi, goddess of rice harvest and fertility. The dancers mimic digging trenches to branch water routes through fields; they till the soil and plant rice shoots. Then they hold a ceremony for abundance, carrying an image of Dewi Sri Laksmi to the jineng, the traditional home granary. In Bali-Hindu culture, cycles of life and seasons are honored in ritual and offerings. Balinese dance also abstracts movements from the natural world. This choreography includes lasan megat yeh (lizard crossing water); ngelo (bird soaring); ukel (the shape of a young fern); as well as various evocations of grasses, trees, or palm fronds swaying in the breeze. Water is suggested obliquely, as dancers mimic birds that see their reflections in the shallow water of the paddies.

2005 PERFORMANCE

TITLE OF PIECE: KALI YUGA
GUEST MUSIC DIRECTOR: I Made Terip
GUEST DIRECTOR: Ellen Sebastian Chang
GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER: I Ketut Rina
POET/LIBRETTIST: Goenawan Mohamad
GUEST PERFORMERS: Ni Ketut Arini, I Wayan Budiarsa
PERFORMERS: Ni Luh Estiti Andarawati, Avi Black, Kathryn Bodle, Dudley Brooks, Anna Deering, Bea Deering, Laura Deering, Tom Deering, Sonja Downing, Todd Greenspan, Jim Hogan, Maddie Hogan, Steve Johnson, Colum Keelaghan, Evan LaForge, Debbie Lloyd, I Made Moja, Mudita Nisker, I Made Putrayasa, Nicci Reisnour, Mark Salvatore, Jon Skelton, Molly Smart, Ketut Suardana, Christina Sunardi, Alice Terry, Wayne Vitale, Sarah Willner Kwan Wong.

Kali Yuga, which refers to the cycle of decay and dissolution as outlined in the Hindu epic, the Bagawad Gita, is a tribute to the victims of Bali's tragic nightclub bombing in 2002. This catastrophe transformed Bali's international image from an idyllic cultural mecca and tourist destination to a locus of international terrorism. It catapulted Bali into a state of disaster and vulnerability, while simultaneously spawning a process of societal soul-searching.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya's Kali Yuga is an intensive artistic response to this destructive event. It is a contemplative journey and a cross-cultural questioning led by Bali's most revered artists. Poet and librettist, Goenawan Mohamad, banned under the Suharto regime, has become one of Indonesia's leading intellectual critics. Choreographer I Ketut Rina, one of Bali's most innovative, is joined by the celebrated gamelan leader and composer, I Made Terip, along with leading dancers Ni Ketut Arini and I Wayan Budiarsa.

2004 PERFORMANCE

TITLE OF PIECES: Tari Nelayan (Fisherman's dance), Joged Bumbung (Flirtation dance)
GUEST MUSIC DIRECTOR: I Nyoman Windha
GUEST DANCE DIRECTOR: I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki
DANCERS: Avi Black, Kompiang Metri-Davies (Saturday), I Made Moja, I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki, I Wayan Leger, and Rotrease Yates (Sunday)
MUSICIANS: Susanna Miller Benningfield, Kathy Bouvier, Dudley Brooks, Valerie Harris, Lars Jensen, Heather Sansky, Michael Steadman, Wayne Vitale, Samuel Wantman, I Nyoman Windha, and Kwan Wong.

The Gamelan Joged, presented in the 2004 Festival, features instruments made of bamboo which come out of a folk tradition, rather than the bronze instruments which accompany the more typically seen religious and court dances. The Gamelan Joged is often performed at parties, festivals, harvest celebrations and political gatherings.

The two pieces performed in the Festival each come from a rich secular tradition. The first, Tari Nelayan, or, Fisherman's Dance, is one of the few Balinese dances that focus on the sea. It depicts scenes of a group of fisherman, yet its deeper meaning celebrates community spirit and the earth's bounties. In Bali, the Hindu god Vishnu is the symbol of water. It is believed that the sea cleanses the earth. This particular piece first written in the 1960s during a politically tumultuous time in Indonesia's history, is one of few that was composed with a political agenda. The words and movements encourage socialist politics as they allude to the cooperative efforts of workers.

The second piece, Joged Bumbung, translated as Flirtation Dance, comes from a more obscure improvised tradition popular in northern and western Bali. It is an overtly flirtatious dance typically performed at parties. Through mockery and humor, female dancers entice male audience members to dance with them while simultaneously snubbing their advances. The often-untrained audience members are left to sink or swim. These pieces were adapted for the Festival stage by guest dance director, I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki, and guest music director, I Nyoman Windha.

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