Dancing ancient tales
The Buddhist brahmans of Batuan, in concert with the famous former
king of the village, Anak Agung Gede Oka (1860 - 1947), were responsible
for making Batuan the center on Bali for the most courtly and
elegant of all Balinese dance forms, the gambuh. In all of Bali
only two troupes from Batuan still perform this theatrical presentation
of tales of ancient princes and princesses.
The first is led by I Made Jimat, Bali's most celebrated dancer
of modern times, whose genius never fails to leave his audiences
breathless. The second consists of the extended family of the
greatest dancer of the generation before Jimat - the late I Nyoman
Kakul - who passed on the skills and techniques of gambuh and
of the other important dance forms such as the masked topeng plays
and the operatic arja theater. I Ketut Kantor, Kakul's son, now
leads the troupe.
In his day Kakul was able to call on the mask-making skills of
Dewa Putu Kebes, whose topeng masks were charged with the spiritual
forces of kings and heroes from the Balinese past. Since his death,
his son Dewa Cita and grandson Dewa Mandra have maintained the
combination of immaculate skill and divine inspiration, which
made his work so powerful. A pupil of the family, Made Regug of
Negara, also upholds the fine carving tradition.
Besides the dances, performed in the central part of the village,
Batuan is also famous for its wayang wong, masked performances
of stories from the Ramayana. This is exclusively performed in
the banjar (hamlet) known as Den Tiis.
The 'Batuan style'
From Den Tiis also came the inspiration for the modern Batuan
style of painting. In the 1930s, two brothers, I Ngendon and I
Patera, began experimenting painting with ink on paper. The result
was powerful black and white images of magic and of Balinese life.
The families of these two artists are still influential in the
village, and now own the Art shop Dewata on the main road leading
to Ubud.
Ngendon and Patra originally studied under a traditional painter
living to the east of the palace, but from them. The painting
tradition spread back to the main part of the village where it
was enthusiastically embraced by a number of their fellow villagers.
The present-day generation of artists includes Made Tubuh, Wayan
Rajin, Ida Bagus Putu Gede and Made Budi who has become famous
through his humorous and insightful depictions of tourists in
Bali.
|
