'Cak Amaterasu', a perfect marriage of cultures

'Cak Amaterasu', a perfect marriage of cultures

Kadek Suartaya, Contributor, Denpasar, Bali

Chieko Komatsu and a number of other Japanese women came to
Payangan village, a famous art village, inviting 100 farmers to
collaborate with them on a multicultural art project.

Chieko and her friends were no ordinary Japanese tourists
exploring Bali's beauty. Rather, they are artists currently
studying Balinese traditional dances at the Bali Institute of
Arts (STSI) in Denpasar.

And the Payangan farmers are not only skillful at cultivating
rice fields but also gifted and proficient dancers and gamelan
players.

The collaborative performing art project presented 100
Payangan farmers as Cak dancers, while the Japanese artists
played roles from Japanese mythology.

The art project, titled Cak Amaterasu, attracted a huge crowd
during the 25th Bali Arts Festival at Taman Budaya Denpasar on
July 13. The story centered on the Japanese tale of three gods:
Amaterasu (the god of the Sun), Tsukuyomi (the god of the moon)
and Susanoo (the god of the sea).

The story focuses on Susanoo's bad behavior. Susanoo is
portrayed as bad-tempered and a heavy drinker who turns life on
earth upside down. Amaterasu feels sad and concerned. She decides
to seclude herself in her stone chamber. When Amaterasu enters
seclusion, the universe turns dark.

All the gods and goddesses try in vain to persuade Ameterasu
to reappear from the chamber. Finally, Amaterasu agrees to end
her seclusion only if Susanoo stops drinking sake. The world
turns bright again.

This collaborative performance was quite intriguing. It was
presented as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)-Japan Year 2003.

The Cak or Kecak dance is a traditional Balinese dance first
performed in the 1930s.

The Kecak dance has been frequently misinterpreted as a monkey
dance. This misunderstanding probably came about because many
Kecak performances take stories from the famous Indian epic
Ramayana. In most Kecak performances, dancers play the roles of
monkey soldiers who help King Rama fight the devilish Rahwana.

In fact, the Cak dance is open to any kind of story. I Wayan
Dibia, a prominent choreographer, has used the epic Mahabharata
as well as local mythology and legends for several Cak
performances.

Sardono W. Kusumo, another choreographer, composed Cak Rina in
the l970s. American artist Keith Terry collaborated with Wayan
Dibia to work on Body-Tjak in l990. Japanese artist
Tamashirogumi, who combined the Cak dance with several Japanese
ritual mask dances, also had a unique take on the Cak.

In Cak Amaterasu, the Balinese and Japanese artists
successfully created a harmonious combination of vocal and body
movements. During this multicultural dialog, the artists
implicitly reveal a deep sense of brotherhood and convey a
message of peace to the audience.

Chieko and 15 other dancers added elements of Japanese dance
and art to the performance through the use of Japanese language
in their dialog and elaborate Japanese traditional costumes.

The concept of three Japanese deities, Ameterasu, Susanoo and
Tsukuyomi, is similar to the Balinese Hindu concept of Trimurti-
Brahma the creator, Wisnu the guardian and Siva the destroyer.

In the performance, the birth of Ameterasu, Tsukuyomi and
Susanoo was accompanied by the noisy cak, cak,cak chorus.

Ameterasu appeared in red costume and a sparkling white
turban. Tsukuyomi wears white cloth with a crescent symbol on the
head, while Susanoo is portrayed as a fearsome creature clad in
black. The plot of the story was cleverly translated and
presented in Javanese and Balinese by a puppet master, Nyoman
Sukerta. The dialog was spoken in Japanese by the Japanese
dancers.

Cak Ameterasu reached its climax when all the gods performed a
special ritual to persuade Ameterasu to emerge from the chamber.
The 100 cak dancers held torches and gently swayed, creating a
magical atmosphere.