There are some things that are unique to Bali and so memorable that they stay with you for years to come. One of these is the marvellous Bali dancing which has become a truly beautiful art form. Kartika Suardana, affectionately known as Dewi, is a young writer/photographer who was asked to create the introduction section to NOW! Bali Magazine from the first issue. She toured the island, finding, documenting and photographing the many dance forms one by one, and created a memorable opening section to the magazine .“We Balinese always welcome people with a dance” she said charmingly. Now here is her work, collected over three years, designed beautifully into a book to be treasured by visitors, for years to come..
Discover the richness and beauty of Bali's many performing art forms. This book is a lavishly illustrated introduction to the most popular forms of traditional performing arts in Bali--among the most intricate and spectacular musical and theatrical performances found anywhere. Ideal reading for visitors to the island, as well as anyone interested in Balinese culture, this book presents the history and form of each performance--with 250 watercolor illustrations and full-color photos to aid in identification. Introductory sections discuss how the performing arts are learned in Bali and the basic religious and cultural tenets expressed through the arts. Subsequent chapters describe each form, including Gamelan Gong Keybar, Gambuh, Legong Keraton, Baris, Wayang Kulit and many more! Chapters include: What is Gamelan? Women in Non-Traditional Roles The Stories in Balinese Theatre Sacred and Ceremonial Dances And many more! Expert authors I Wayan Dibya and Rucina Ballinger discuss how the performing arts in Bali are passed from one generation to the next and the traditional values these performances convey, as well as their place within religious celebrations and how and when the performances are staged. In addition to including a bibliography and discography, the book is enhanced with over 200 stunning photographs and specially-commissioned watercolor illustrations from artist Barbara Anello.
"If you know where to look, you can still discover and recognize what it was that intoxicating John Coast fifty years ago." —Sir David Attenborough This book is one of the great classics about Bali, now with dozens of illustrations and photographs. Dancing out of Bali is a fascinating personal account of a young Englishman who settled in a small house in Bali in the midst of the political turmoil that griped post–war Indonesia. There, he immersed himself in Balinese culture and made ambitious plans to bring a troupe of Balinese dancers and musicians to Europe and America. The book relates John Coast's daring and remarkable adventure that took him from revolution in Indonesia to the footlights of London and Broadway. Within a few weeks, the troupe had captured the hearts of audiences. Here are photographs of Bali and stories of the performer's magic island and of the enchanting dancers, including the beautiful 12–year–old Ni Gusti Raka. She became a star overnight and delighted audiences everywhere during the troupe's triumphant tour. It is also a story of Balinese culture and life in Bali–following the devastating Japanese occupation–of music and dancing in Bali, of many of the island's great performing dancers and musicians,
Indonesia, with its mix of ethnic cultures, cosmopolitan ethos, and strong national ideology, offers a useful lens for examining the intertwining of tradition and modernity in globalized Asia. In Inventing the Performing Arts, Matthew Isaac Cohen explores the profound change in diverse arts practices from the nineteenth century until 1949. He demonstrates that modern modes of transportation and communication not only brought the Dutch colony of Indonesia into the world economy, but also stimulated the emergence of new art forms and modern attitudes to art, disembedded and remoored traditions, and hybridized foreign and local. In the nineteenth century, access to novel forms of entertainment, such as the circus, and newspapers, which offered a new language of representation and criticism, wrought fundamental changes in theatrical, musical, and choreographic practices. Musical drama disseminated print literature to largely illiterate audiences starting in the 1870s, and spoken drama in the 1920s became a vehicle for exploring social issues. Twentieth-century institutions—including night fairs, the recording industry, schools, itinerant theatre, churches, cabarets, round-the-world cruises, and amusement parks—generated new ways of making, consuming, and comprehending the performing arts. Concerned over the loss of tradition and "Eastern" values, elites codified folk arts, established cultural preservation associations, and experimented in modern stagings of ancient stories. Urban nationalists excavated the past and amalgamated ethnic cultures in dramatic productions that imagined the Indonesian nation. The Japanese occupation (1942–1945) was brief but significant in cultural impact: plays, songs, and dances promoting anti-imperialism, Asian values, and war-time austerity measures were created by Indonesian intellectuals and artists in collaboration with Japanese and Korean civilian and military personnel. Artists were registered, playscripts censored, training programs developed, and a Cultural Center established. Based on more than two decades of archival study in Indonesia, Europe, and the United States, this richly detailed, meticulously researched book demonstrates that traditional and modern artistic forms were created and conceived, that is "invented," in tandem. Intended as a general historical introduction to the performing arts in Indonesia, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Indonesian performance, Asian traditions and modernities, global arts and culture, and local heritage.
This is an updated edition of the classic history of Balinese dance. Ranging from the sacred to the secular, the authors look at the many genres of the form, their description, classification, and analysis.
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This book presents an introduction to more than a dozen different types of Balinese gamelan, each with its own established tradition, repertoire and social or religious context. The instruments and basic principles underlying the gamelan are introduced, thus providing listeners with the means to better appreciate the music. Scores of beautiful color photographs, a discography, and a brief guide to studying and hearing the music in Bali, will prove indispensible to visitors and gamelan afficionados around the world.
Dance is more than an aesthetic of life – dance embodies life. This is evident from the social history of jive, the marketing of trans-national ballet, ritual healing dances in Italy or folk dances performed for tourists in Mexico, Panama and Canada. Dance often captures those essential dimensions of social life that cannot be easily put into words. What are the flows and movements of dance carried by migrants and tourists? How is dance used to shape nationalist ideology? What are the connections between dance and ethnicity, gender, health, globalization and nationalism, capitalism and post-colonialism? Through innovative and wide-ranging case studies, the contributors explore the central role dance plays in culture as leisure commodity, cultural heritage, cultural aesthetic or cathartic social movement.
