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<< Back To Articles ListGamelan Sekar Jaya and Abhinaya Dance Company: Ramayana
Vol. 1 January 1, 2001 No. 1
Gamelan Sekar Jaya
by Kaunaloa Mitchroney
BERKELEY- Once upon a time, a group of enthusiastic musicians attended a "six week workshop" on Balinese gamelan music. Several months later, they were still going strong and decided to give a performance at Fort Mason. It met with such an enthusiastic response that they had to turn people away.
Twenty-one years later, the Gamelan Sekar Jaya is an international success. From those beginnings, this not-for-profit organization dedicated to the study and perpetuation of Balinese performing arts, has toured Bali, has been the subject of a documentary film, and has produced two recordings, "Balinese Music in America", and "Fajar" (they are also the featured group on "American Works for Balinese Gamelan Orchestra"). Sekar Jaya’s dedicated members come from diverse backgrounds. But they unite artistically under the direction of gifted Balinese performing artists, many of whom are invited by the faculty of STSI Denpasar (Bali’s National Institute of the Arts).
The word "gamelan" (pronounced gah-meh-lan) means orchestra, and refers to the metallic, percussive instruments which exist as an inseparable set, meant to be played together. The musicians learn in the traditional manner, working without notation to master the individual layers of melody which make up the complex compositions. They then practice until the music reaches the high level of ensemble unity and rhythmic precision—two essential features of Balinese performing arts.
Recently Sekar Jaya collaborated with the Club Foot Orchestra to create a new live score to Henri de la Ralaise’s 1935 silent movie, "Legong: Dance of the Virgins." The new work was composed by I Made Subandi and Richard Marriot (artistic director of the Club Foot Orchestra); it combines gamelan, string quartet, trumpet and clarinet. The composers were inspired by the lushness of color and sensuality of authentic Balinese dance captured by the film. The work took two to three months to complete.
After each of the screenings (which took place in San Francisco and New York), Sekar Jaya also gave a live performance of "Legong Lasem," featuring its dancers Kompiang Metri Davis and Rotrease Yates. Audiences had the opportunity to see the semi-ethnographic film from the 1930’s alongside an expression of the living tradition of Balinese dance.
The project began when Sekar Jaya and the Club Foot Orchestra teamed up to find a silent movie about Bali for which a new collaboratively created score could be written, said Wayne Vitale, general manager of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. They could find only two, and the other was not in the fine condition as "Legong" which had recently been restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
"Legong" was Hollywood’s last film rendered in two-strip technicolor, and had been edited for time and content by various censors, some for a mock suicide scene during a religious celebration, others because the women of the all-native cast frequently had uncovered breasts.
UCLA restored the film as closely as possible to de la Ralaise’s original vision, and only rarely allow the archival print to be screened. This makes the presentations in New York and Berkeley unusual events. After such extensive restoration, "they’re protective of it," Vitale said. Because the projection of the delicate film is so rare, the Berkeley showings " may well be the last ones, at least for the time being."
A tragic romance set among the celebrations and commonplace events of Balinese life, "Legong" opens with the unrolling of a scroll which warns that the man chosen by a maid would not return her love and that the gods would frown on her.
Poutou, a sacred temple dancer, falls for Nyong, a youthful member of the local gamelan orchestra, during a village festival. Because she is in love and hopes to marry, she prepares for her final dance at the temple. But Poutou’s younger half-sister, Saplak, catches Nyong’s eye. Unable to withstand her shame and heartbreak, Poutou collapses in the middle of her final temple dance and eventually ends her life by leaping from a bridge to the river below.
The dance after each of the performances is of traditional origin, Kompiang Metri Davies, one of the two dancers, said. She portrayed both Princess Rangkesari and a raven.
A quick learner, Davis said she had the intricate moves memorized in two hours. But then, she started Balinese dancing when she was five, perfecting the balanced postures and the precise finger positions at that tender age.
Her interest began when she saw her sister dance. She was told at the time she was too young to begin, so she simply observed. It paid off. When it came time for her to study formally, she was able to absorb four choreographies when other dancers her age could master only one.
Because of family pressures, she took a break from dancing when she was 13, but resumed the art when she was 18. After moving to California, she discovered the Gamelan Sekar Jaya and joined.
The Legong dance she and Rotrease Yates performed is one of many versions. "Legong Lasem" tells of a princess who is kidnapped by King Lasem, although she’s betrothed to another king. King Lasem tries to seduce her, but she pushes him away, finally leaving the stage.
Lasem then encounters a mortally wounded raven, who warns the king to release the princess or else he will be killed in battle with the princess’s betrothed. Since only a portion of the hour-long dance was presented after the screenings, the audience didn’t see the final act, in which the raven’s dire warnings prove true.
Rotrease Yates, who portrayed King Lasem, is a native of New York who began learning Balinese dance in 1994. Her first contact happened at a workshop held at the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, given by Sekar Jaya’s former member, Mimi Prather. She learned the classical Legong style when the ensemble toured Bali in 1995, and has performed it with Sekar Jaya many times before this year’s movie screenings.
"I do consider the style very difficult to learn. The angles of the agem (basic dance posture) seem unnatural at first, and tend to be frustrating to achieve. However, one thing I found about the agem is that if you hit the position correctly it is actually quite comfortable!" Intrigued by the style and the music, she worked through the difficulties of the delicate hand positions as well as the head and eye movements.
She and Davies rehearsed extensively to synchronize their movements. They watched videos of Ni Ketut Arini Alit "and tried our best to perform the piece as she taught…it is very important for the two Legong dancers to move the same way and hear the music the same way. In Bali, the Legong dancers would be of similar height and would look similar. Kompiang and I don’t really look similar, but we try very hard to match our movements. And we’ve danced a long time together, so we can ‘feel each other’on the stage, and that helps in trying to move the same way."
Having the live dance performance was important, she said, "because it gave the audience a chance to see that the dance wasn’t just part of the movie. It is still a living art. They could also see how the costume and movements are, even from the ’30’s, to see how the classical dance style is still being maintained."
Unlike her counterpart, Yates didn’t dance until high school, where performing in her senior play got her "my first pair of real dancing shoes!" Inspired, she went on to minor in dance in college at Penn State, where she studied international folk dance and joined the Penn State International Folk Ensemble.
Since then, she has performed with Monique Legare International Dance Ensemble and Janosik Polish Folk Ensemble in Philadelphia; Westwind International Folk Ensemble and Lowiczanie Polish Dance Ensemble, San Francisco; and KaUaTuahine Polynesian Dance Company, Berkeley.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, a 45-member ensemble, celebrated its 20th year in 1999, Vitale said. It was founded by master musician I Wayan Suweca with Americans Rachel Cooper and Michael Tenzer.
Balinese performing arts emphasize unity among performers. For instance, one instrument, the reong, is played by four performers simultaneously, but the music produced must be seamless. Likewise, music and dance are considered inseparable and must be completely wedded in gesture and nuance.
"This is rehearsal-intensive music," Vitale explained. "We play each phrase many times. The teacher shows you the music directly, without notation. This, combined with a wide range of difficulty between the musical parts, makes it possible to accommodate new players in a nice way." Longtime musicians readily help train newcomers, he said. "We make it a conscious priority."
And they succeed. Within four years of the orchestra’s founding, they were invited by the governor of Bali to perform at the annual Bali Arts Festival. An award-winning documentary was made about the visit, in which the Balinese audience welcomed the Americans with open arms and amazement. One paper announced "A cultural bomb has dropped." Suddenly, Americans no longer were simply tourists who lounged on Balinese beaches, Vitale said. Indonesia’s news magazine Tempo called the ensemble "the finest Balinese gamelan outside of Indonesia."
Gamelan Sekar Jaya is made up of several gamelan ensembles plus dancers. These include a full gamelan gong kebyar; a gamelan angklung, a four-tone orchestra; the folk jegog and joged; and gender wayang, the quartet of musicians which usually accompanies the famed Balinese shadow puppet theater. These ensembles have given concerts throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico and regularly sponsors workshops, lectures, demonstrations and other programs in the Bay Area. They recently completed an artistic collaboration with Chitresh Das, a dancer of the classic Indian Kathak form. Their critically acclaimed production, the Subali-Sugriwa, was staged at San Francisco’s Cowell Theater in May 2000. Sekar Jaya’s next production, "Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream" will debut on Friday, February 16, 2001 at Zellerbach Hall, U.C. Berkeley. For ticket information, contact 510-642-9688.
Those interested in learning more may contact Gamelan Sekar Jaya on line, or by calling 510-237-6849.