Italian dancer to show 'Topeng Bali'
By Retno Pujiastuti
JAKARTA (JP): There is nothing unusual about a performance of Topeng Bali when it is done by Indonesians, but it does make for news when the dancer is an Italian national who has conducted an intensive study of the art form.
Carmencita Palermo will take center stage for Topeng di Bali: Ritus-Tari-Topeng (The Mask in Bali: Rite-Dance-Mask) at 10 a.m. on Monday at the Italian Cultural Center Jakarta in Menteng, Central Jakarta. It will be a "conference performance"; Carmencita will introduce the world of Balinese dance-drama to the participants through an innovative combination of dance performance, audiovisual material and audience participation.
This Balinese form of dance-drama consists of one or more dancers wearing masks and performing tales about semimythical kings. The structure of the dance consists of the presentation of masks portraying typical courtly characters, such as the prime minister, the old man and the prince, supported by secondary characters of servants, villagers and clowns.
Carmencita will perform five dances, each of which reveals the character of a different mask: the strong Topeng Keras, the comic Demung, the old Tua, the smiling Monyer and the noble Dalem. Participants will also be able to explore the Balinese dance- drama through video, slides and music, as well as through hands- on involvement with the masks and their performance.
Open to the public, the event is arranged for the Indonesian Heritage Society in conjunction with Saraswati, a group for the promotion of Balinese arts.
Carmencita has been interested in theater and dance since she was young, and became familiar with Balinese dance when she was a student at Bologna University in her homeland 10 years ago. She first studied the Cak or monkey dance, which was also the topic of her university thesis after seven months of research in Bali.
She studied at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Denpasar from 1994 to 1996, learning the mask dance, both in theory on the campus and in practice from local teachers.
Although now based in Jakarta, she continues to return to Bali periodically to conduct more cultural research, particularly on performing arts and religion.
Also on Monday, there will be a contemporary dance performance by Mugiyono at 8 p.m. at Teater Utan Kayu (TUK).
Raised in a family of puppeteers in Klaten, Central Java, Mugiyono studied dance and now lives in Surakarta. He has performed his works such as Lingkar, Kosong, Bolo Tenggok, Topeng, Jungkir, Mei and Pidato both in Indonesia and abroad, including the Netherlands, Germany, Korea, Singapore and the UK.
Mugiyono is scheduled to perform two dances, Kabar-Kabur and Bagaspati, at TUK.
For more information on Topeng Bali contact the Italian Cultural Institute at tel. 3927531 or itacult@indosat.net.id.. For Mugiyono's performance, contact Teater Utan Kayu (TUK) at tel. 8573388.