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<< Back To Articles ListDance Spirit: Bali Hoo!
April 2000
Bali Hoo!
The most fabled of Indonesia’s 600 islands has a dance culture steeped in exotic music and costuming.
By Cristina Schmohl
Indonesian audiences raved and the country’s premier news magazine “Tempo” called Gamelan Sekar Jaya of El Cerrito, CA, “the finest Balinese troupe outside of Indonesia.” Though GSJ members now numbering over 40 make the ancient artform seem like second nature, the critical acclaim they’ve received speaks volumes about their passion for Indonesian dance. With the majority of the troupe being Caucasian, their devotion to Balinese music and dance is impressive.
Founded over 20 years ago by Balinese musician I Wayan Suweca and Americans Rachel Cooper and Michael Tenzer, Sekar Jaya is a non-profit group dedicated to the study and preservation of Balinese performing arts. The troupe regularly invites Indonesian guest artists including faculty members from the National Institute Of The Arts in the Balinese city of Denpasar to work with them.
“Balinese dance and music are conceived as being wedded to one another,” stresses Wayne Vitale, general manager and a founding member of GSJ. The typical Indonesian “orchestra,” a gamelan includes bronze gongs, drums, flutes and keyed-metal or bamboo instruments. Choreography is tightly synchronized to the music’s accents and textures—each change in the music reflected by dancers’ subtle hand, foot and facial movements.
In Bali, dancers begin training at a very young age, says co-founder Rachel Cooper. In preparation for the delicate legong – a secular dance set in groups of two or three like a ballet suite – boys learn the warrior dance, baris, and girls study an offering dance known as pendet. In Bali, there is no definitive line between what is sacred and secular, adds Rachel, though Balinese dance was originally created as an offering to Hindu gods. The pendet may be used as a welcoming dance and the legong is sometimes performed during temple celebrations. Elaborate choreography as well as gold brocade costumes composed of ornate kain (skirts) and intricate headdresses and masks help dancers define the characters they portray.
The subject of a prize-winning PBS documentary entitled “Kembali,” Sekar Jaya’s first tour in 1985 led to an invitation to perform at the prestigious Bali Arts Festival in 1992 and a third tour five years ago. They’ll be back at the festival this summer, honored as featured performers in a new international gamelan exhibition.
Although Indonesian performing arts are centuries old, they continue to evolve. All of GSJ’s tours presented new choreography and music that wowed native audiences. “In Bali, the word ‘traditional’ doesn’t carry the same significance as here. There is a smooth continuum between old and new,” explains Wayne. Always innovative, beyond creating over 50 original works of Balinese character, Sekar Jaya has collaborated with world-renowned artists from various cultures. “We dance around different edges,” Wayne says. A recent collaboration with Abhinaya Dance Company, a troupe from southern India, displayed both companies’ unique choreography and rhythms. The project was such a success that GSJ plans an even more unusual – and unpredictable – pairing of Balinese kecak (vocalized chants) with north Indian kathak dancing performed by master dancer Chitreshdas, slated for the Cowell Theater in San Francisco this May. Think of it as another example of gotong royong—the “spirit of working together,” which GSJ has mastered over its first two decades. For more info, check out www.gsj.org or call 510-237-6849.