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A Balinese mask starts as a tree. The steps to making a mask: sawing the wood, axeing the block, chisel work to rough in the features, modeling with curved and straight knives, sanding, painting.
David Knezz begins axe work on the block. Above right, the wood at each step of the way, from a demonstration by carver I.B. Anom.
At right is our carving teacher, I.K. Molog, finishing up a topeng tua, or 'old man' mask. Hair is applied to the mask with bamboo pegs, so that it can eventually be replaced without ruining the paint.
To read the full story of carving in the Balinese way, visit a great article by Ron Naverson, who was on our 2003 trip. http://www.siu.edu/%7Eperspect/03_fall/masks.html
Ron is professor of design at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Dell'Arte Abroad students who are studying mask carving spend 4 - 6 hours, five days a week, for four weeks.
Wayang kulit, or shadow puppets, is taught in the home of Wayan Mardika and his family, in Sukawati.
Associate Program Director Newman and Tom Jones working on their puppets, using handmade tooling knives and punches. Learning the music is part of the study, with Wayan's brother, Komang, here with Joani Rose and Kajsa Ingemansson.
Studying to be a dalang, or shadow master, is a multi-disciplinary art involving: making rawhide puppets, painting them, developing character voices spoken and sung, manipulating the puppets while cueing the orchestra, learning ancient Javanese and contemporary Balinese and Bahasa languages, learning Balinese histories and Hindu mythology, including the Ramayana and the Mahabarata; playing the gender music, improvising during a performance in relation to the event, and functioning as a kind of priest/entertainer.Our month-long study gives us just a taste of this art--our students each design and create a puppet, learn the basic accompanying music, and practice manipulating the puppets. Students also become part of the family life in a Balinese compound, and are invited to temple ceremonies where they are expected to dress in appropriate temple gear. (Photo: Wayan Mardika with his 3 children, and students Jodi Gilbert, Kajsa Ingemansson, Tom Jones, Joani Rose).
A carver whose work is often exhibited at Dell’Arte is Nyoman Setiawan, who not only carves traditional masks but loves to take on creative projects from photos brought to him. Here with his wife, Suri, and daughter Arianti, who goes to a special school for kids with vision problems. She’s an A student.
Each day we travel to the home of a Balinese teacher—some to carve, some to work on shadow puppets, some to dance lessons.
Our shadow master is Wayan Mardika, here with one of his sons, next to one of his gender (pronounced like gander) instruments, which the shadow puppet class is also learning. The gender accompanies the wayang kulit, or shadow plays. His daughter, Ayu, just won a singing competition.
Our carving teacher is Ketut Molog, here with a 2005 student, Amanda Haney. Molog’s son and nephews are also carvers….
The homes of our Balinese teachers are always lively--extended families live in compounds and there are always children, cousins, grandparents, uncles and aunts around, not to mention chickens, ducks, dogs and cats....
Weekend in North Bali
About three hours from where we are staying, up over the mountains dotted with lakes, coffee plantations and cooler temperatures, and down again to the coast, is a less touristed part of Bali. We took the weekend at a quiet resort called Taman Sari, which has a beautiful beachfront where fresh fish catches are brought in by local small boats, and a reef reconstruction project is taking place.
The snorkeling was easy, a 30 second walk from our room to the beach, though everyone looked like clowns walking along in their flippers. The beach is in a long cove and faces east, so sunrise was glorious. The sunburns on the back, however, were not so pretty following a few hours in the water watching the fish. I stayed out of the water and opted for a long walk on the beach, hot even at 8 AM, thus the parasol action…
As is happening worldwide, reefs are being destroyed by over-harvesting of coral, cyanide fishing, bombing for fish, dredging and other destructive practices. Reef destruction was responsible for a much greater level of damage in the big tsunami than could have happened—without reefs, there is nothing to break the force of water rushing onto the land. Taman Sari is the first site in Bali where the reconstruction is going on, using a method of using electrified wire mesh to create a calcified environment that live coral can attach itself to, as well as other bio-creatures.
By agreement with the local village, the resort makes a contribution to the village in return for having about a mile of beach left alone by the hawkers that are an annoyance on all the busier beaches in Bali, where the sellers wade out holding up sculptures, offers of massages, hair braiding, manicures, poison blowguns, and “love.” We got a small taste of this (the hawkers, not the 'love.') at a market along the way, where two of the group bought “Rolex” watches for $2.50 each, with “plastic bag gratis.”
We have been learning the Cak, also known as Kecak or Monkey Chant, an interlocking chant usually performed by large groups of men wearing sarongs, and holding torches. It's been heard on a number of CD's as part of dance mixes of late.
Our teachers are a group of men from the village of Mas--each of them holds down a part (there are from 5 - 7 parts depending on the kind of cak.)
We each sit in front of one of the guys and try to learn their part, then to do it all together and see if we can get the parts to interlock. When it locks in, it sounds great, like a group of percussionists jamming away; when we don't lock in, it sounds like noise. Then we each move to the next guy and try to learn his part. They are very patient with us!!
There are body moves as well, plus melodic sections with strange words and gestures. The kecak is strictly a tourist spectacle, often performed with pieces of the Ramayana. It may have begun as a sacred trance chant sung by both men and women in the early 20th century, but the Dutch artist Walter Spies, who was greatly influential in developing Bali's performing arts to a level that would attract tourism, made the early versions of what we see today, helped by a modern dancer.
Kecak is very exciting to hear and to watch, and a lot of fun to do.
We spent our weekend in North Bali, where the coastline has long, unbroken stretches where there are only a few resorts, no high-rise hotels, and fewer tourists. More on that next post...........
Every few days I have a massage with a great woman who comes to our rooms and for $5 does an hour and a half. We all take advantage of the massages here, and they feel great after our class days.
I get around either by walking or by motorbike, which has become the most common way for the Balinese to travel here. Most people are getting a little jitney, called a 'bemo' to take them to class in the villages, and we all do lots of walking--see second photo.
All but one of the students were hesitant to try the motorbike thing here, since first time riders find this place pretty challenging—a chicken could cross the road at anymoment—(why? Fill in the answer) or an oncoming truck could pull into your lane, and they drive on the left here which is disconcerting if you're not used to it. It's great mindfulness practice to drive here. Most Balinese do not drink, so you don't have to worry about drunk drivers, just reckless ones, poor ones, huge trucks on your side of the road, bicycles, dogs, chickens and children.
But little accidents can happen walking, too--two nights ago Jodi fell into an irrigation ditch as we were walking home from dinner along a dark path through the rice fields. She was right in front of me and suddenly she is in the ditch! She is a great traveler, so she laughed it off and was lucky she didn't bruise anything, as the sides of the ditch are concrete. But it was funny...
The most unusual thing since I was last here is that there is now wireless connections and I can sit in my room and do my emailing instead of taking the motorbike down to town and sitting in an air-conditioned internet café drinking coffee as I write. In fact the mosquitos can feed on me as I work…just had a thunderstorm with a downpour—didn't last long, but sounded great on the roof.
It is the rainy season, though there has been little rain this year. We all shower 3 or 4 times a day, what with the heat and humidity. Jeans are way too heavy to wear, and we have all bought the latest model of Thai fishermans' pants, which are tied around the waist with fabric turned down over the tie—this year's models have turned down tops of striped fabric so they can be worn fashionably low on the hips.
Overall, Bali itself grows less primitive each time we come here—more western goods and services are available, the shops continue to proliferate and eat up the rice paddies, but the people are in the main still of great spirit and kindness—I still feel safer here than anywhere in the USA.
Last night we celebrated Kajsa's 27th birthday with a great dinner and then to the Ubud Jazz Café for salsa dancing followed by a late night pool party. Yet everyone still made it to 7 AM class except one person. (see Kajsa having coconut icecream for her birthday --2nd photo).
The Dell'Arte Study Abroad Trip 2007--We began our trip with 7 plus 2 program directors. I met the group on January 31 when they all arrived in Bali and ferried them to our lovely home in the rice paddies above the town of Ubud. The second photo is a view of the sunset from my balcony. One person wishes she didn't have to leave early, but can't get a plane seat out any later—seems like Chinese New Year is causing all available seats on China Air to be packed solid for the next few weeks with wildly partying Chinese people.A TYPICAL DAY ON OUR PROGRAM We begin our day here with 7 AM class, and I alternate mornings of Alexander technique and yoga with Jodi Gilbert, who does voice work. It's been a great way to start the day.Breakfast is 8 – 9--fresh fruit, banana pancakes, scrambled eggs, tea or coffee.....
For those studying dance (see the first photo--Ayu our teacher in front, Theresa and Kajsa in back) they are in class for two hours from 9 - 11. Kajsa Ingemansson is one of the hearty ones who is determinedto soak it all up, so when dance is over she heads out to another village for shadow puppetry /music class with 3 others. In this four-hour class they are learning music, the making of rawhide shadow puppets, and how to use them. I head off to the carving teacher's house in the village of Mas at 10:30 and work there till 4 PM every day. I'm still working on my first mask of this trip, but David Knezz is on his 3rd mask already. I struggle with trying to create the underlying structure, the volumes of the face, rather than trying to draw a picture on the wood. The wood is beautiful and the knives are beautiful. I prefer the knife work to the chisel work, which comes before it, preceded by the axe work.
Our schedule is very full—in addition to the morning practice, the various training classes, etc. we also do language classes or monkey chant (kecak) classes on some afternoons, as well as seminars with mask carvers or puppet masters, and we spend some evenings watchingperformances. There is time to swim in the pool, eat great food, and shop. Everyone still on the trip is happy as a clam, as well they should be--this is a great program! Happy Valentine's Day!
