Gambuh project preserves Balinese dance

Gambuh project preserves Balinese dance

By Jean Couteau

DENPASAR (JP): Balinese dance conformed to the whims of its
changing patrons in the 1900s. Dutch colonials and cosmopolitan
travelers in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as Javanese officials
and jet-setters in post-independence years, have all brought new
demands to which the dances have adapted in various ways. More
dynamic style, shorter pieces, emphasized solo pieces, a shift
away from the narrative towards the decorative and the
feminization of the dances are a few of the consequences of these
alien influences.

At the level of genres, the evolutionary road goes from the
primitive Sang Hyang Jaran and classical Parwa to the modern
Manuk Rawa and contemporary dances by the Indonesian Institute of
Arts. Despite a certain enrichment of the repertoire, the process
is nevertheless worrying. From an offering or narration imbued
with magical power and performed by and for the group, Balinese
dance is slowly mutating into an entertainment, albeit not yet
into a form of individualized art. Desacralized, it also becomes
knowledge and its teaching shifts from the temple and village
hall to the school, from the master to the casual teacher. Last
but not least, alienated from its village origins, dance becomes
an exotic commodity for the tourist market and a tool of cultural
prestige for the state.

Now, with quickening urbanization threatening the transmission
of dance skills in the villages and with tourists in growing
numbers yearning for their share of "exotic Bali", it is obvious
that the impact of change is snowballing. Whatever the existing
cultural institutions are doing, it won't stop the phenomenon of
change. This is why conversation is imperative.

Balinese classical dances have reacted differently to the
modern onslaught. The urgency of their conservation is therefore
variable. The Legong is a case in point.

Relatively recent, and still originally associated with the
courts of pre-colonial Bali, it has come to epitomize in the eyes
of the "outside world", and thus, by reflection, in the eyes of
the Balinese, the essence of Balinese dance. Regular efforts are
therefore made to reactivate its repertory. This was illustrated
at the Legong Festival held in Bali three months ago at the
initiative of the Walter Spies Foundation.

Temple dance

Whatever its reputation, the Gambuh not the Legong is the
classical Balinese dance of excellence. Together with trance and
other related temple dances, the Gambuh is usually attributed the
origin of most of the corpus of gestures of Balinese dances: the
Arja, the Wayang Wong, the Legong Kraton and the Topeng dances
all are rooted in the Gambuh.

The earliest proof of the existence of Gambuh in Bali are
texts written in Middle-Javanese in the 17th century. But other
signs suggest an older origin.

The stories, known throughout all the archipelago as the cycle
of Panji are located in the pre-Majapahit kingdoms of eastern
Java and they tell the adventures of a wandering prince searching
for his beloved. This points to an origin in the maritime culture
of the Javanese Pesisir (coastal area) just around the time of
the Islamization. The dance might well have been introduced to
Bali through a commercial network of which Bali was an active
partner during the reign of Waturenggong in the 16th century.

With its didactic emphasis on the ways of the court, the
Gambuh was originally performed by and for the royal circles of
Javanized Bali. It soon became enmeshed within the life of the
neighboring communities though, and, following the collapse of
the Balinese kingdoms in the 19th century and early 20th century,
the Gambuh, when it survived, became a full-fledged temple dance.
Since, owing in particular to the loss of its court reference in
a changing Bali, the Gambuh repertoire has shrunk until it has
virtually disappeared from many villages. Where it did survive,
the dance was trunked, or became part of a larger ritual. In
contemporary Bali, the main troupes of Gambuh are in Batuan,
Pedungan, Jungsri and Depeha, with remnants of the dance or its
costumes found in many other villages throughout the island.

Modernity presents Gambuh with a new set of challenges. With
the passing of the old masters, what remains of its classical
repertoire is threatened. To the village youths who belong to a
new, Indonesianized cultural environment, the Gambuh, complicated
in its music, slow in its choreographic rhythm, and using a weird
old language, holds little attraction. Their reluctance is
reinforced by the taste of ordinary tourists, who prefer the
liveliness and femininity of dances such as Legong and
Tumblilingan to the arcane sophistication of the Gambuh. The
dance, in other words, is threatened in its natural environment:
the villages.

Gambuh project

Christina Formaggia, a strong-willed Italian who "fell in
love" with the Gambuh while living the life of a Balinese village
dancer of Batuan, perceived through her daily contact with the
old masters the threat hanging over classical Balinese dance. She
took on the task to "do something" about it. Through her
stubbornness, and the later support of the Wianta in Bali and the
Ford Foundation in Jakarta, the Gambuh Project was born.

Started two years ago in the village of Batuan, Gianyar, and
soon to be expanded to Pedungan, Denpasar and later to other
Balinese villages with a Gambuh tradition, the project has two
short-term objectives: To insufflate the dance by having the old
masters teach to younger generations elements of repertoire,
choreography, language and music nearly forgotten and threatened
with extinction. And second, to research the dance, its
literature and its anthropology.

It is anticipated that better educated generations of Balinese
will better appreciation of the shortcomings of tourism, and will
be able to save their heritage.

The Gambuh project has now achieved its initial objectives.
Dozens of youths of the village of Batuan have been trained -- or
retrained -- in the original Gambuh style of dancing. Specific
attention has been paid in particular to the dance movements and
the choreography, to edulcorate surreptitious influences from
other, more recent dances. The Gambuh has thus been reconstructed
to the form it must have had at the beginning of the century,
when Walter Spies described it in his book Dance and Drama In
Bali. A complete literary and anthropological survey has also
been undertaken, which has already put out two provisional
publications.

Beyond the grant given by the Ford Foundation, the Gambuh must
now survive on its own. This is the last leg of the project. To
achieve self-sufficiency, it has been decided to divert resources
from tourism, but this time in a positive direction. The Gambuh
is therefore being promoted to sophisticated tourists. Since the
first of August, the new Gambuh troupe of Batuan has offered the
revamped dance twice a month to those dreaming of a by-gone Bali.
Tourism, having wreaked havoc on dance, has now been called to
rescue it.