Women have taken to playing gamelan

Kadek Suartaya, Contributor, Gianyar

Every Saturday night, dozens of women rush excitedly to the bale banjar (community center) in Sukawati village, Gianyar, to practice gamelan instruments.

As they arrived at the bale banjar, some women played tabuh lelambatan, a classical gamelan piece, usually performed to accompany a religious ceremony. The other women stood patiently at the back row awaiting their turn to play the instruments.

In the neighboring villages, a large number of women were also seen practicing gamelan instruments -- what a wonderful view!

There are currently six gamelan troupes in Sukawati, whose members are all women. For the last two months, the troupes have been practicing passionately to prepare for their upcoming performances at the villages' temple anniversaries (odalan pura) between April and May.

Usually, these women play gong kebyar, the most common gamelan instruments owned by almost every banjar in any village in Bali.

Playing gamelan instruments is merely seen as part of their social and religious obligations (ngayah in the Balinese language) rather than performing for other purposes.

In the Balinese context, ngayah has stimulated the emergence of local gamelan troops. This concept is also considered a strong and powerful support for the continuity of Balinese performing arts. The coming out of female gamelan troupes in Sukawati has been motivated largely by this social and religious consideration.

As an artist, it is really encouraging to see how Balinese women these days are now eager to plunge into the traditional music and performing arts world.

In the past, gamelan instruments were the domain of male players; nowadays, performances of women gamelan groups are common, not only at religious events but also on a variety of occasions, including arts festivals.

Women players have already mastered all techniques and styles previously dominated by men. If you look at how they play the instruments, you would be mesmerized by their vigorous energy. Since 2000, female gamelan groups mushroomed, especially when the Denpasar mayoralty office started to organize a gamelan contest titled Gong Kebyar Wanita.

Performance of these women gamelan players deserve a standing ovation.

Balinese women began to take interest in learning to play gamelan instruments when the annual Bali Arts Festival started around 25 years ago. Since it was established, the festival organized a gong kebyar contest for women.

The gong kebyar festival draws a lot of participating gamelan groups from each of the island's six regencies.

From the festival, the interest of female gamelan players has spread from one village to others. Now, it is common to view groups of young and old women practicing gamelan instruments in the banjar every afternoon. It is also common to watch women performing gamelan instruments in various religious ceremonies.

Usually, women choose to play gong kebyar gamelan.

Estimated to have appear first in north Bali in l915, Gong Kebyar is a multifunction gamelan used for both performing arts as well as for religious art activities. The style of performance is fast, energetic and attractive with several pauses expressed in intricate ways. These types of musical instruments are believed to represent the energy in Balinese society.

According to Ni Made Wiratini, a lecturer at the school of letters at the University of Udayana in Denpasar, Balinese women are currently active in a large variety of performing arts including gamelan, karawitan vocal choirs, theater, puppet mastering, and of course dance performance. Wiratini continued to say that Balinese women have spread their wings to every field of the performing arts. Not only dancers, women are now acting as dance choreographers, music composers and directors of both traditional and modern theater.

In her paper entitled Penampilan Wanita dalam Seni Pertunjukkan Bali, (Women's Roles in Balinese Performing Arts), this doctoral candidate at the Graduate Program of Cultural Studies at the University of Udayana, Wiratini concluded that the involvement of women in performing arts such as musicians (gamelan players and music composers), choreographers and dancers has dramatically changed the landscape of the Balinese art world.

"Art has become a male-female creative endeavor."

The once male-dominated art world has been transformed into a genderless art domain," she argues. This, she adds, also explained and answered ongoing questions on the role of Balinese women outside the house.

In the past, people would look down on women who were actively involved in any kind of art activity, "It was immoral for women to leave their homes in order to perform before the public," she writes.

However, in the last three decades, it is important to note that there has been a significant democratization process within the Balinese art world.

Balinese women are well-known as strong-willed persons, creative and skilled artisans, Wiratini said. There are no significant obstacles that can prevent them from performing any art works.

However, as women, they experience biological cycles such as menstruation, which bans them from participating in any religious activities. Quite often, music and dance performances are intended to observe religious events and are performed in temple courtyards or other sacred places.

Only this situation prevents Balinese women from being able to show off their artistic skills -- everything else is wide open.

Women's active participation in performing arts has enriched the Balinese art world.