Singapadu pioneers village arts festival in Bali

By I wayan juniartha

SINGAPADU, Bali (JP): The people of Singapadu village, 12 kilometers east of Denpasar, deserve a special place in Bali's arts history for organizing the first village-level arts festival.

The Singapadu Arts Fiesta, which started on Aug. 15 and runs through Aug. 25, is an effort to boost the spirit of artistic collaboration between the village's hundreds of artists, and to improve local youths' appreciation and understanding of their cultural heritage.

Several art performances held nightly are the highlights of the festival. The performances vary from the classical Prembon dance drama, the courtly Arja opera, the mystically charged Calonarang dance drama, the refined Janger, the grand Sendratari to the hilarious Joged Bumbung. Performances of classical and contemporary gamelan compositions are also featured.

Besides art performances, the festival also boasts an array of art exhibitions presenting the works of Singapadu painters, maskmakers, sculptors, goldsmiths and handicraftspeople.

At least 20 art troupes and 60 established artists are taking part in the festival, including famed painter I Wayan Sika, maskmakers I Wayan Tangguh and Cokorda Raka Tisnu, dancers Ni Nyoman Candri and Ni Ketut Ribuwati, and puppeteer I Ketut Kodi.

"We want this event to be a cross-generation festival, where the young artists of Singapadu can learn from their seniors, while the old artists will have a chance to experience the exuberant energy of their juniors," the chairman of the festival organizing committee, I Wayan Dibia, said.

It was no surprise that the troupe of Singapadu old artists was given the honor of performing the Prembon dance drama on the festival's opening night, while two troupes of child artists will perform Arja and Sendratari on the last two nights of the festival.

Unlike most art festivals in Bali that are either sponsored by or staged at the initiate of the government or some huge private companies, the idea of staging the Singapadu Arts Fiesta originated from the local artists and villagers. All 16 traditional communities in Banjar in Singapadu have sanctioned and fully support the idea.

"Banjar's elders urged their members to fully participate in the festival's preparation. When we said we need child dancers for the opening ceremony, in no time at all we got hundreds of child dancers. Such enthusiasm was, in a way, very surprising," the committee's secretary, Marlowe Makaradhwaja, said.

So it was with a high level of enthusiasm that the committee was asked to organize the festival on a regular basis. The committee agreed that the festival would be held every three years, so Singapadu's artists will have plenty of time to prepare for the next festival in 2003.

The Singapadu Arts Fiesta is also Bali's first large-scale art festival organized and involving artists of the village-level. The short-lived Kuta and Sanur art festivals in the 1980s were held in those villages but involved many artists and troupes from outside Kuta and Sanur, Dibia noted.

"While in the Singapadu Arts Fiesta, all supporting artists and troupes are from Singapadu," he underlined.

Dibia estimates that the festival cost approximately Rp 60 million. By Aug. 14, the committee had already collected Rp 45 million, mainly from private sponsors, public donations in Singapadu and a donation from the Gianyar regent. Yet he is confident that the committee will be able to raise sufficient money to cover the festival's costs.

The Singapadu people's love of the arts can be traced back to their origins. Legend has it that once the ruler of Singapadu defeated the enemy of the king of Sukawati.

Overcome with joy, the king of Sukawati asked the ruler of Singapadu to name his reward.

"The ruler of Singapadu did not asked for gold or material wealth, instead he asked for a troupe of the best artists that he could take back to Singapadu," Dibia said, adding that the artists later taught the Singapadu people many of the arts.

Another legend has it that Singapadu's flourishing arts are thanks to the creative powers credited to a sacred kris called Ki Sekar Sandat, which was owned by the ruler of Singapadu, I Dewa Ngurah Kaleran.

One of the most important contributions Singapadu artists have made is in the form of the Kunti Sraya Barong dance. In the 1930s, three prominent Singapadu artists, namely Cokorda Oka, I Made Keredek and I Wayan Griya, managed to integrate certain elements of different dances into a new dance that later became one of Bali's most famous dances.

"They integrated certain elements of the traditional barong dance with the legong and the gambuh dance," Dibia explained.

Strangely enough, the three artists first completed the form and movement of the dance and after that tried to find a traditional story that fit the duration of the dance. Finally, they found Kunti Sraya, a story about the youngest of the Pandawas Sahadewa, who was sacrificed to the Goddess of the Durgha Cemetery. In the end, Sahadewa succeeds in transforming the scary Durgha back into the beautiful Uma.

Circa 1962 I Made Keredek trained dancers of Batubulan village in Kunti Sraya Barong dance. It is in Batubulan that the Kunti Sraya Barong dance has reached its popularity as the most common entertainment for tourists. There are nine troupes of Kunti Sraya Barong dance now in Bali, with most of them based in Batubulan village, Dibia said.

"No wonder that many people wrongly assume that Batubulan was the birthplace of the Kunti Sraya Barong dance," he said, adding that the assumption was another reason to hold the festival.

The festival appears to have been organized in a serious and professional manner, which is rare for Bali. The organizing committee went to great lengths to ensure that there was public awareness about the festival.