East meets West

Western Theatre Force Collective, PEPADI Indonesian Society of Wayang Puppetry and Sanggar Paripurna (Bali, Indonesia)

Nowhere is it more evident that there is no “one way” but only one of many than in international practice.

Considered one of the longest uninterrupted performance traditions in the world, the Balinese traditional performing arts are unique, rich, and complex. Deeply embedded in Balinese spiritual life (Balinese Hinduism), virtually every form of music, dance, and drama has its origin in ritual, if not a ritual itself. Practices like Wayang Kulit (shadow puppetry) reach back to 1500 BC.

Bali’s highly trained and skilled professional artists, holding significant esteem and social obligations, are embedded with their public “creating community through art”. Creation is an essential part of daily life participated in by most from birth.

Balinese performers believe in the principle of Tri Loka – the three worlds. The acts of creation and performance serve to help find balance in these relationships. Human beings connecting with higher powers, human beings connecting with each other, and human beings connecting with the natural world around them. At the very heart of Balinese’s creative process is making creating community by making art together and the power of change. The act of creating art with others itself serves deeper and more meaningful purposes.

We travel to learn. And we have much to learn from our Balinese peers.

This residency is the first of a two-part examination of what new is sparked when different cultural rivers come together in equal respect through creative exchange of knowledge and combining of practices.

A fusion of Balinese traditional practices and western contemporary creation was presented and tested on the National Day of Puppetry. The project brought together, in an immersive 5 screen installation, new media, verbatim text, and devised creation, with the Balinese story and Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppetry).

Gallery

About

SANGGAR PARIPURNA & I MADE SIDIA

SANGGAR PARIPURNA was founded in 1990 by multi-talented artists from the village of Bona, Blahbatuh, and covers a wide range of arts, such as puppetry, puppet building and creation, percussion and music, dance, mask and the art making offerings, and more. Since it’s inception, the studio has been dedicated to the preservation, development and creation of art and culture of Bali. The company is an intergenerational with a special focus on community. www.sanggarparipurna.com.

I MADE SIDIA is an acclaimed innovator in the Balinese Performing Arts. He has collaborated with many national and international productions such as the “Theft of Sita” and has toured extensively across the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia. He is the co-creator and director of the tourist spectacle Bali Agung Show featuring 180 performers in a fusion Balinese and Western forms.