Night at the Gamelan

[fbhjr]

It was a nice warm sunny day. Not too hot, but just about right.


After 6 hours of meetings at work, I escaped and my wife and I went to the place where I am the Noodle man. The regular woman was there. As I ordered, she kept looking at me and looking at me. Finally I said “and an order of sesame noodles.” She immediately turned and shouted something to the cook in Chinese. So, although it’s been a couple of months since I was there, I think I am still the Noodleman.

Then we headed onto the campus. My latin is very rusty, but I think what is over the food service building is “good god, what have we hacked up at Donna?”


I could be wrong. I never took latin, only Spanish...

Because it is always crowded, I got there early. We were the only ones in the hall. So, I went over and got a close look at the instruments.


Later in the show it was explained that the small gong in between these two is the key tempo keeper of the whole show.


Much as I was VERY tempted to, I did not touch any.

I was happy that morgan_lafaye and palusbuteo both made the show.

(Morgan’s roommate Carol leaned back just in time to miss the photo...)

They have a lot of performers. About two dozen on percussion instruments and at least a dozen dancers.



There was once dance that I could clearly tell was kata related and listed as a “warrior dance”.


But, I can’t say I got “two bumblebees falling in love” out of this one.


One of my favorite parts is the Barong Ket Dance.


The person doing it this time was not the same as the other times we’ve seen it. But, they were very good.


They had a new program this spring. It was the Gending Topeng Tua.


When the dancer’s mask slipped some, I realized the dancer was the professor who started these programs. I don’t know if she’s always been one of the dancers or not.

But, she did a very good job with it.

While the students changed costume for the last dance, the 5 instructors from Indonesia explained the instruments, how they are used and played some instructional pieces.


The man who leads the instruction asked his wife to get up and show some of the dance moves. I laughed a lot at that because she gave him the exact same look that my wife gives me when I ask her to get up at a show and do some sword moves. I don’t understand Indonesian, but I know the look and can guess at the conversation. But, she got up and showed us some very well done moves.


The two of them then performed a “love dance” which was, in my opinion, the best performed dance of the night. (Took video of it, so no stills.)

The final performance is the Cak Dance.


They do mock combat that is totally understandable without language or weapons, but is very good.


It was, as always, a great show and I really enjoyed it.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

yep, that was pretty spectacular.

I am really impressed with how well the students did such an arduous and demanding set, in only a semester's time. That is an awful lot of work to be doing in a very short amount of time. As you said the past year's 'class' was a little better, but still, considering these are college kids with a full school schedule, and to pull this major production off, was very impressive to me.

I noticed how attentive the two of us were when Combat related sequences and moves were being done. :D

The Warrior Dances with the Triangular "helmets" directly reminded me of early Roman/Romulan called Villanovan. There is a helmet (one in the UPenn Collection that I saw) which looks nearly identical. Interesting how cultures geographically separated can turn out very similar looking clothing and such.

I agree the Lion-Dragon/Barong Ket, the Old Man/Gending Tonpeng, and the Warrior dancers (the ones who did the Mean and Goofy masks) and the husband/wife instructor's dances were among the best performances. There was also a lot of great 'eye candy' as well, some great, flashy costumes too.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

"but I think what is over the food service building is “good god, what have we hacked up at Donna?”

Apparently you're not that far off! - Just thumbing through my Latin dictionary just now, I got

Benedic Domine Nos Et Haec Tua Dona

Roughs out to be: "Praise the Lord we (who have) Donated" - But the Latin is apparently the Order of the Table Blessing "Bless us, Oh Lord, for these your gifts / from thy Bounty"

I was just able to make out at the top of the building in the rectangle: Hospes Venit Christus Venit

is part of the Rule of St. Benedict ~ "When a Stranger Comes, (So) Christ will come", or, "Be Recieved like Christ"

Google...It's like, helpful for this stuff... ;D