The Master Dancers of Bali, featuring eight of the Indonesian island's most celebrated dancers and musicians, will perform on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m. in Union College's Yulman Theater.
Cost
is $5, free to members of the Union community. For more information, call the
box office at 388-6545.
The
troupe will be on campus for two days, doing a number of lectures and
demonstrations on Monday, Oct. 7, and Tuesday, Oct. 8, which are free and open
to the public. (A complete listing of workshops appears below.)
Under
the direction of Mr. I Gusti Raka
Pinji Tisna, the Master
Dancers of Bali capture the magic of
their island with a program of five traditional dances and selected Balinese
operas, all with gloriously colorful costumes and live traditional Balinese
music.
Master
Dancers of Bali is an eight-performer
troupe of some of the island's most accomplished and highly regarded dance
masters, who will perform together for the first time outside of Bali. The performers range
in age from 30 to 80, and span three generations within the same family. Ms. Ni
Ketut Cenik, 80, is the
most experienced traditional Balinese dancer performing. She has been awarded the highest honors in the performing arts by the
local Balinese government as well as by the Ministry of Culture of Indonesia.
“(In
the West) we require our dancers to retire when they can no longer do the
technical feats of their youth,” said Gail George, who is organizing the
group's visit at Union. “In Bali, as elsewhere in the
East, they not only value, but revere, their older master performers. Ms. Ni Ketut Cenik is a wonder to
behold.”
For a listing of workshops and discussions, see the on-line press release.
The
program is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, Unitas,
East Asian Studies, Performing Arts Department, Minerva Committee, Dean of
Students Office, and the Anthropology Department at Union College.