Gamelan Sekar Jaya

Opening Performance

The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival 2012
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Fort Mason Presents, and World Arts West
present the World Premiere of

Bayangan Jiwa “The Spirit’s Image”
In a shared performance with Gamelan Sekar Jaya & Pusaka Sunda

Saturday, June 2nd, 4pm & 8pm
Cowell Theater at Fort Mason, SF (Directions)

*** Tickets ***
    Children under 12: $12
    Student w/id & seniors 65+ $16
    General: $20
Online Box Office or by phone 415-345-7575  (More Info)

Gamelan Sekar Jaya & Pusaka Sunda share a performance at San Francisco's Cowell Theater to present new and traditional works for Balinese gamelan semarandana, angklung, gendér & dance, and Sundanese gamelan degung and dance, including a collaborative piece by Burhan Sukarma and I Dewa Putu Berata.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya will perform Bayangan Jiwa—A new work for dance, shadow, gendér and the seven-tone gamelan semarandana, created by I Dewa Putu Berata and Emiko Saraswati Susilo, performed by the musicians and dancers of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Bayangan Jiwa, meaning both “the spirit’s image” and “the imagination of the spirit,” investigates how the human spirit navigates the space between darkness and light, movement and stillness, and sound and silence.

The performance will be shared with Sundanese gamelan ensemble Pusaka Sunda, led by renowned artists Pak Burhan Sukarma and Rae Ann Stahl. Suling bamboo flute virtuoso Pak Burhan Sukarma and his group, Pusaka Sunda, will perform traditional gamelan degung music, along with Pak Burhan's composition Gagak Lumayung, the lovely vocal piece Bulan Tumanggal, and the famous degung tune Sangkala. Margot Lederer Prado will perform traditional masked dance.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya will also present traditional works and two other new pieces by Pak Dewa Berata and Emiko Susilo:
Legong Somia, a new work that thoughtfully investigates the 1960's tragic massacres took place in many places in Indonesia, including Bali, as a purge of the Communist Party sympathizers swept over the country. Following the massacres, the region of Petulu held a large ceremony to bring peace and tranquility, "somia," to the spirits of those who had died tragically and who had not received proper death rites. Soon after the ceremonies, flocks of hundreds of white egrets, known as kokokan, flew into Petulu and roosted in the trees. It is believed that these are the spirits of those who died, who fly peacefully over the island, returning home, circling around the village and finally settling in for the night above the homes of Petulu.

Kelanguan, a new instrumental work for gamelan semarandana that employs an extremely complex use of overlapping time signatures and intertwining melodic motion. Underscored by the Balinese dedication to unity, Kelanguan seeks to reveal the beauty and transformation that can happen when diverse paths of thought and experience overlap and intertwine.

Tari Legong Pengeleb
Creators: Pan Cening Winten and Pan Wandres (Wayan Peraupan)
Reconstructed by Made Kranca, Pan Carik (Made Redita), Kocok (I Made Pasca Wirasutha)
A stunning tribute to North Bali’s leadership, Tari Legong Pengeleb is a masterpiece of the kebyar genre, featuring dynamic rhythms, precise and ornamented connections between music and dance, and constant melodic shifts. This piece, originally created in the early 20th century, was part of the musical explosion that has thrived for nearly a century now in Bali.

This performance is presented in part by Fort Mason Center Presents which is supported by San Francisco Grants for the Arts. Bayangan Jiwa is made possible by a generous grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
GSJ Photos & Design: Sara Gambina-Belknap