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.