Performances of Balinese Theater, Dance and Music at Yale

The music and dance of Bali may call you to the Yale campus on April 17–18, when five professional Balinese performers present lecture demonstrations, a workshop on Balinese rhythm and movement and two live performances.

 The event, titled “Power and Performance: Theatrical Bodies and Persons in Contemporary Bali,” is part of the two-day arts residency of the Balinese troupe at Yale.

 The performers — I Wayan Dibia, Ni Nyoman Manik Suryani, Ni Made Wiratini, Ni Made Pujawati, I Nengah Susila — are nationally recognized in Indonesia and regularly perform in international venues. They are trained as dancers, musicians, actors and scholars, teaching in institutions in Indonesia and abroad.  During their time at Yale, they will focus on three Balinese genres: Arja theater, classical dance and Kecak Balinese Ramayana monkey chanting. 

 Arja is a form of semi-improvisational theater, similar to Commedia dell’Arte, in which dancers and actors take a short narrative and spin it into a two- or three-hour performance. Stock characters, like spirited maids, cagey old guys, wise sages and grumpy old women, develop the story. When Arja is performed in Bali, clowns translate the esoteric text into everyday Balinese. When the troupe performs at Yale on April 17, the clowns will translate into English. Arja theater will be the topic of the lecture demonstration, titled “From Page to Stage,” on Monday afternoon in a World Literature course of the Comparative Literature Department.

 On Monday night, the troupe will give a full-length dance and theater performance in Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., at 7:30 p.m.

 On Tuesday morning, the troupe will present a second lecture demonstration, “Gender and Embodiment in Balinese Performance” in an ethnomusicology class taught by Sarah Weiss. Weiss is the organizer of these events. In this presentation, performers will convey gender identity—not necessarily their own—through the stylized movement of Balinese dance.

 Troupe members will teach a sound and movement workshop in Kecak—Ramayana monkey chanting—on Tuesday afternoon in a class offered by the Theater Studies Department. Participants will learn to perform the complex interlocking vocal patterns of Kecak and experience traditional “Balinese” movement.  The workshop participants and teachers will perform an impromptu demonstration of Kecak in the common room of Jonathan Edwards College. 

 A specialist in Indonesian and Southeast Asian performance, Weiss is committed to raising the profile of performance from around the world on the Yale campus. She is starting a Javanese gamelan ensemble at Yale, which she hopes will be up and running by beginning of the Fall 2006 semester. 

 All events are free and open to the public and are co-sponsored by the following Yale organizations: Department of Music, Asian American Cultural Council, Department of Comparative Literature, Council on Southeast Asia, Jonathan Edwards College and Theater Studies.

 For more information on any of these activities, contact Weiss at s.weiss@yale.edu.  Visit the Power and Performance Balinese web site for more information. A full schedule of events follows.

Full Schedule of Events for “Power and Performance: Theatrical Bodies and Persons in Contemporary Bali”

Monday, April 17

2:30–3:45 p.m.— From Page to Stage: Improvisation and Narrative in Balinese Arja Theater
Lecture Demonstration in Harkness Hall (WLH) Room 208.

7:30 p.m. — Legong and Arja: Balinese Dance and Theater in Performance
Full-length performance of dance and theater including a 40-minute Arja segment performed in Balinese with English translation. Luce Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

Tuesday, April 18

9:30–11:20 a.m. – Gender and Embodiment in Balinese Performance
Lecture demonstration on the representation of the three Balinese genders in dance and a detailed comparative look at the embodiment of gender in Java and Bali.  Harkness Hall (WLH) 208, 100 Wall St.

2:00–4:30 p.m. – Kecak- Ramayana Monkey Chanting and Balinese Movement Workshop
An opportunity to learn the interlocking patterns of monkey chanting and try out some of the basics of Balinese dance. Theater Studies Ballroom, 220 York St.

5 p.m. – Workshop performance of Kecak in the common room of Jonathan Edwards College, 68 High St.