Gamelan Sekar Jaya and I Madé Moja present a hybrid live performance, film screening, artist talk, and demonstration of Balinese shadow theater.
Time & Location
December 1, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
About the event
Master interdisciplinary artist I Madé Moja leads a hybrid presentation revealing the secrets behind his recent Balinese Wayang Listrik production, Panji and the Lost Princess, co-directed with Kirstin Pauka at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in April 2026. The program includes a live music and dance performance from Gamelan Sekar Jaya, featuring Master Artist-in-Residence Ida Ayu Nyoman Dyana Pani, a shadow theater demonstration, an artist roundtable and Q&A, and an exclusive screening from the premiere at the Kennedy Theater in Hawaiʻi. Witness a master performer of Balinese shadow theater demonstrate all of the behind-the-scenes techniques that bring wayang listrik productions to life, and have an opportunity to interact with the artists as they share their passion and knowledge for performance. Panji and the Lost Princess was adapted from a traditional Balinese folktale by Ketut Wirtawan and I Madé Moja, translated and adapted for the screen by I Madé Moja and Kirstin Pauka, composed by gamelan director I Madé Widana, and choreographed by I Madé Widana, I Madé Moja, and Annie Reynolds.
Tickets also sold at the door, cash preferred and credit cards accepted.
I Madé Moja is a prominent painter, skilled in the traditional ink and watercolor technique of his native village Batuan, Bali, known for its classical music and dance, fine woodcarving and unique painting style. These time-honored traditions are passed from one generation to the next and continue to thrive, despite great changes in the culture and economy of Bali. In addition to his intensive training under his father, I Madé Budi, Moja studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Denpasar, Bali, where he was trained in western traditions and modern art forms, such as graphic arts, in addition to traditional Balinese painting styles. His work has been shown internationally and featured in numerous books on Balinese art and culture. Since relocating to the Bay Area, Moja has branched out artistically. In addition to teaching and experimenting with new themes in his painting, Moja has been creating puppets, designing and painting stunning sets, and performing with ShadowLight Productions, a non-profit theater company based in San Francisco that takes its inspiration from classical Indonesian Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet theater). Moja is also a primary dancer with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, an award-winning Bay Area orchestra and dance group which fosters artistic exchange between Bali and the United States through residencies, workshops, performances, and the creation of innovative new works for music and dance.
Kirstin Pauka's research interests are performance traditions of Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asia. She has done extensive field research on Randai theatre of Sumatra. She is a practitioner and scholar of martial arts and their relationship to performing arts. Dr. Pauka has produced and directed several Indonesian theatre productions at UH Kennedy Theatre, including the US premieres of English language adaptations of Sumatran Randai theatre, and Balinese Wayang Listrik (Balinese shadow theatre). The shows she directed in collaboration with Indonesian master artists have received multiple Poʻokela awards over the years. Dr. Pauka served as Director of the UHM Center for Southeast Asian Studies from 2014-18. Recently she has been spearheading a multi-year educational outreach project using Balinese folk tales and puppetry to highlight environmental issues affecting island communities like Bali and Hawaiʻi, geared towards K-12 students.
Ida Ayu Nyoman Dyana Pani began studying the arts at the age of 5 under her father's guidance. Music, dancing, and singing became part of her family's daily routine, eventually developing into an arts studio (Maha Bajra Sandhi). This rigorous education, which focused on mastering several arts (multi-talented), led her to numerous performance opportunities at the regional, national, and international levels. Her special talents lie in playing the drums/musician, mastering traditional vocal arts, including Kidung, Cecangkriman, Kekawin, and Palawakya.
