The Gamelan Çudamani performance talks about humans and nature coexist in harmony and love for classical Balinese tradition. At first, they perform a track by using traditional gong, gamelan, and flute. Then is the performance that includes one man and four women to talk about how humans ask for forgiveness and blessing after they put dead people into the river, which also includes some animals like monkeys, tigers, and deer fighting with a person who destroys ecosystems. The third part describes the water philosophy of life, which is choreographed by a woman. It shows how farmers close relationship to water combined with the slides as background. In the end, it uses the audience as agents jump for joy together, making the voice of the audience part of the music. The voice of the traditional instruments is a miracle, which can make a clean, crisp sound like a river or a deep, intense sound like wild animals. When they perform, they wave gamelan like writing calligraphy, which is smooth.
Their costume, makeup, and movements are the symbols of their culture. Most of their costume include golden elements and half-a-pack skirts. All their movements are flexible including their fingers and ankles. Their head tilted sharply to one side and their eyes widened and narrowed in time with the music with amazing precision, though each movement lasted a second or two. Their dance has an original structure, which is like a classic symbol of their identity. Every movement is an extension based on the original structure, and every time the music slows down, it will return to the original structure.
My favorite part is when they gather together in front of the stage and use their hand to hit their body to make music. The slide behind them shows the place they live. It reproduces the scene of their lives vividly and shows their love of life and the place they live. Combining with the slide, which shows the place they live, and their joyful facial expression, the performers bring us to their life, their culture. The last part of the performance also takes me to their culture and feel about their identity. The woman dancer had much interaction with other instrumentalists and the audience, introducing them to the audience. At the same time, when the audience’s cheers become louder, they will also reply to us with more passion by playing the drums, striking gongs, and playing the flutes. The way they use the audience as an agent not only spreads happiness but also pushes the atmosphere to its highest point.
Through the performance, I experience the mixing of technology and living performance, cultural identity, and feminism. It is like the bridge that links keywords we learn from classes. The living performance gives us a more direct way to have a strong feeling on culture, stories, and history. Through these lenses, I can have a better understanding of the performance. From my point of view, the performance is also like a “media” that can show me the culture and identity of diverse communities.