Italian dancer to show 'Topeng Bali'

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.