Ida Bagus Alit Widianya (centre) is a master dancer and mask-maker of the Topeng tradition. He lives in Lodtunduh near Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali. Being of a high caste position he is of service to temple activities and performs with his associates Ida Bagus Putu Parwita and Ida Bagus Putu Wirabumi in ceremonies throughout southern Bali. The trio also hold regular Topeng classes for both Balinese and foreign students.

For Performance & Workshop Programme Details Scroll Down

Prices & Booking information here.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Sat. 17th May 2008 7:30pm
The performance, which presents a rare opportunity to see Topeng masters on an international stage, will feature our visitors performing traditional dances in their own hand crafted masks. They will be accompanied with music by the accomplished British Gamelan Lila Cita and acclaimed dancer Ni Madé Pujawati, director of Balinese Dance. The evening will be presented to reflect the accessible, ceremonial nature of a Topeng performance; viewers will be invited to either sit, or move around the venue, as they prefer.

Studio 30, Park Road, Dartington Hall Estate, near Totnes, Devon.
A map can be found here

Prices & Booking information here.

WORKSHOP DETAILS
3-Day Workshop Programme 16th – 18th May 2008
The workshops will run over 3 full days. Each day will be a balance of traditional Topeng teaching by Ida Bagus Alit and his assistants on their international debut, and contextual learning sessions, in which the training will be built upon and we will explore ways of incorporating the knowledge and techniques into individual practice, as well as gain a deeper understanding of Topeng’s role in Balinese culture and society.

The contextual learning sessions will be lead by Margaret Coldiron, Tiffany Strawson and Ni Madé Pujawati all of whom have extensive knowledge and experience of Topeng and Balinese culture. Scroll down for their biographies.

The workshops will be hosted at Dartington College of Arts, on the beautiful Dartington estate, near Totnes, Devon.
A map can be found here

Prices & Booking information here.

Bali Unmasked is presented in association with the Centre for Performance Research and Sherman Cymru. Further workshop programme 21st – 23rd May. www.shermancymru.co.uk

CONTEXTUAL LEARNING SESSIONS will be led by:

Margaret Coldiron trained as an actress at the Drama Centre, London, received her MA in Text and Performance Studies from King's College and RADA and her PhD in Drama from Royal Holloway. She is a freelance theatre director, performer and researcher specialising in Asian performance and masks. She is a member of Lila Cita Gamelan Ensemble and Lila Bhawa Balinese Dance Troupe in London.

Margaret is currently a researcher on the AHRC project "Body and Mask in Ancient Theatre Space" and for the Centre for Mask Research of the Dramatiska Institutet of Sweden and teaches Eastern Dance Drama at the University of Reading. Her publications include: Trance and Transformation of the Masked Actor in Japanese Noh and Balinese Dance Drama (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre (Indonesia entries-Routledge 2000) and the Encyclopaedia of Asian Theatre (Greenwood Press, 2007) as well as various articles and reviews in Asian Theatre Journal, Indonesia and the Malay World, New Theatre Quarterly, Women and Performance, Seleh Notes and the online journal Consciousness, Literature and the Arts.

Tiffany Strawson directs, performs, lectures and facilitates community arts projects as a theatre maker and received her MA in Devised Theatre from Dartington College of Arts. In 2000, as a way of fusing her passion for physical, visual theatre and performance using masks, she began ongoing apprenticeships with mask 'gurus' in Bali, including Ida Bagus Alit. She leads mask and theatre workshops internationally, using her extensive collection of Topeng masks, some of which she and Alit created collaboratively.

Tiffany has initiated projects in the UK and in Bali, combining her knowledge of the two cultures. These include 'Tales from the Keep', an ongoing contemporary arts/heritage project in collaboration with English Heritage; and 'Serperti apa tidak sama' (meaning the same but different), a mask-making project and exhibition using both ancient and contemporary western techniques, in the village of Tebesaya, Bali.

Ni Madé Pujawati was born in a remote Balinese village and studied at the Indonesian Conservatory of Music before going on to graduate from the Indonesian Institute of Arts. In 2000 Ni Madé Pujawati moved to live permanently in London where she set up her own dance company (see www.balinesedance.org).

Ni Madé Pujawati has been in increasing demand as a performer, touring Europe, the USA and Asia on a yearly basis, performing a wide repertoire, which includes not only classical Balinese and Javanese dance, but Balinese theatre, adaptations of Greek tragedy and, more recently, a range of contemporary choreographies and cross-cultural pieces which blend Balinese, Javanese and different Indian dance styles. Ni Madé Pujawati is dancer-in-residence with the London-based Gamelan Lila Cita and also a regular dancer with the South Bank Javanese gamelan.

Further reading on the Background page…