C8-cr THE VANCOUVER SUN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007
ARTS&LIFE_
Gamelan troupe from Bali spectacularly evocative Star turn about man in love stunningly intricate BY DAVID GORDON DUKE
REVIEW I Gamelan, Bali's great gift to the world of music, was the feature of a co-presentation between the Chan Centre and Caravan World Rhythms on Monday evening, a onenight-only performance by the spectacular Indonesian performance troupe Cudamani. The clamorous sounds of gamelan orchestras have captivated composers from Debussy to the postminimalists; ensembles have sprung up in countless non-Indonesian settings, including several here in Vancouver. Cudamani is a somewhat revisionist group of just oyer 24 singers and dancers, founded in the late 1990s with the express intent not only to preserve performance traditions but to explore new initiatives as well. C~damani has a particular interest in keeping its musical traditions grounded in authentic social practices. To this end, Odalan Bali: An Offering ofMusic and Dance is structured along the li,nes of a village religious festival- albeit one slickly tailored for a formal concert-hall setting, and very much adapted to the two-hour-long attention span of western audiences. On Monday evening the program began with the members of the troupe establishing the fiction of preparations for the ceremony. Snatches of chant, songs, and the rhythms of mundane tasks gradually stylized and gelled into performance as an enthralling Mecaru ceremony, designed to appease mischievous spirits, sets the stage for the Odalan, or temple ceremony, proper. I
A member of Gamelan . Cudamanl (above) performs the Legong dance. At right, members of the Gamelan ensemble rehearse In Ball •.
PHOTOS BY JORGE VISMARA
The second part of the evening sampled dances and rituals: seven distinct segments ranged from the aggressive, virile rhythms evoking a village cockfight to the grace and elegance of the sacred Rejang and Legong Gering dances. Truna Gandrung (Young Man in Love danced by the exquisite Dewa Ayu Eka Putir) was a stunningly intricate 'star turn with simply extraordinary music. ¡ The musical ensemble, tight and strikingly disciplined at the best of
times, gloried in breakneck rhythms of staggering complexity. With determinedly theatrical pacing, the penultimate event of the program was Barong, a lion dance with a magnificent two-man costume and utterly beguiling choreography- an exultantly effective climax to the proceedings before a simple closing ceremony swiftly brought an evening of , ,remarkable artifice and artistry to a peaceful close. Special to The Sun