The Cudamani performance was a visual and musical performance by a Balinese music and dance ensemble. The performance used elaborate costumes, gamelan, and dance to express a variety of stories from Balinese culture. One concept that I felt I better understood through this performance was that of identity. As it is one of the main themes of our course this is something we have already discussed extensively in class, however, I believe this performance allowed me to better understand this concept from a new angle. A lot of the examples of identity we have looked at in class and in our blog posts come from our own backgrounds. It is easy to see how a keyword can relate to your own life and be understood through the lens of personal experience. However, I think it can sometimes be more difficult to understand the keywords we have engaged with in how they may connect with people who are very different from us.
In our previous discussions we have talked about the relationship between identity and culture. The Cudamani performance was an expression of both the culture of Bali but also an expression of identity for the performers. For members of the audience who come from mostly American backgrounds and have not previously engaged with Balinese culture before this performance was a first look at this particular culture and a quite literal performance of identity.
Another aspect of identity we have discussed is how it may be mediated by a variety of things. In this case our understanding and the enjoyment of the performance was very much mediated by our own cultural perspectives. People who did not come from a Balinese background likely missed out on a certain cultural understanding of the meaning of different aspects of the music, dancing and costumes that likely comes as second nature to those from that background. Our understanding of this performance was also mediated by one of the performers who spoke about the meaning of the pieces and the stories they were telling. Without any cultural background for this performance the audience relied on this mediation to shape their understanding of the performance.
The text speaks to the influence of globalization on the creation of identity of which this performance is an interesting example. Without a globally connected world it would be unlikely that anyone from America would be able to experience this expression of culture at all. This globalization of the world allows for greater interplay between different cultures in the construction of individual identity. By this I mean that more different cultures and identifying groups are able to play off each other in the formation of an individual’s identity. In the case of the Cudamani performance the actual performance was impacted by the audience for which they were performing and the audience was also impacted by their viewing of the performance. One specific example of this was the fact that some parts of the show were explained in English which is not an official language of Bali and was used for the benefit of an English speaking audience.