 The ensembles that performed in People Like Me 2005: It’s All Relative, People Like Me 2002: Face to Face! and People Like Me 2000
were small subsets of a forty-five member ensemble of musicians and
dancers, based in El Cerrito, which has made the performing arts of
Bali its specialty. The active community of artists that has formed
within and around Gamelan Sekar Jaya reflects the living artistic
traditions of Bali itself. Gamelan Sekar Jaya is seen in Indonesia not
only as a flowering of Balinese arts in a culturally distant land, but
also as a laboratory for the creation of new artistic ideas.
Founded in 1979, the group has presented more than three
hundred concerts throughout California and on tours around the United
States as well as to Canada, Mexico, and Bali itself. The is devoted to
both traditional repertoire and innovative work. Since 1979, it has
sponsored the creation of more than 50 major new works for gamelan and
dance, created both by the Balinese artists who have joined the
ensemble as guest directors and, more recently, by the group's American
members.
 Gamelan
Sekar Jaya's collaborative partners have included two symphony
orchestras, (the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the California
Symphony); a Bay Area quintet of percussionists, singers, and dancers
(Keith Terry's Crosspulse); a theater company specializing in
innovative shadow-lighting techniques (ShadowLight Productions); a
South Indian dance troupe (the Abhinaya Dance Company); a music
ensemble specializing in live accompaniment to silent films (the Club
Foot Orchestra); and a North Indian master of kathak dance (Chitresh
Das).
In 1999, Sekar Jaya performed at the World
Festival of Sacred Music at the Hollywood Bowl and at the Santa Fe
Chamber Music Festival. In February 2001, and in 2003, Sekar Jaya
performed the critically acclaimed Kawit Legong: Prince Karna's Dream
at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. During the group's tour to Bali in
June-July 2000, it was selected to receive a Dharma Kusuma award --
Bali's highest award for artistic achievement, never before given to
foreign performers.
 I Madé Moja,
featured performer in People Like Me 2005, is a prominent Balinese
painter, dancer, mask maker, and theater artist who lives and works in
the San Francisco Bay Area. In the visual arts, his primary background
is in traditional Balinese ink and watercolor painting. His work has
been shown internationally and is featured in numerous books on
Balinese art and culture. Since relocating to the United States, Moja
has expanded his artistic repertoire to include puppetry, theater and
dance.
Working with San Francisco-based ShadowLight Productions,
Moja recently performed the lead roles in "The Seven Visions of
Encarnation" and "Tales from Native California: Coyote's Journey." As a
lead dancer with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, he performs a
variety of traditional male dance roles. Moja shares his artistic
expertise with children by providing workshops at local Bay Area
schools, through various educational programs including Young Audiences
of the Bay Area, AYPAL (Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy
and Leadership) Cal Performance's SchoolTime and Cal Performances in
the Classroom, and Music in the Schools (Oakland Youth Chorus).
I Nyoman Sumandhi,
guest artist in People Like Me 2002, is an expert performer of the
gender wayang, the topeng dance, and other forms of Balinese music and
dance, as well as shadow puppetry. Sumandhi, was born into a family of
dalangs or traditional Balinese puppet masters, and he followed in his
father's footsteps. Becoming a dalang involves a mastery of traditional
Balinese music, dance, and choreography, as well as the repertoire and
theatrical techniques associated with the wayang kulit or shadow puppet
theater, which is regarded as the pinnacle of the arts in Bali.
To find out more about Gamelan Sekar Jaya's activities, please call (510) 237-6849 or visit www.gsj.org. |
