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Original Articles

Sendratari Yunani: Negotiating the Languages of Intercultural Performance in an Indonesian-style Greek Tragedy

Pages 129-140 | Published online: 10 Apr 2007
 

Notes

1Within the term ‘European’ I mean to include the post-colonial European cultures of North America and Australia, however unfair the terminology might seem.

2Artistic director Yana Zarifi had initially hoped to use Balinese female dance movements drawn from the vocabulary of the courtly Legong Kraton but these could not be adapted to the music and rhythms of the Greek text (personal communication).

3The term ‘holy theatre’ is a coinage of Peter Brook in his early collection of essays on the theatre titled The empty space, and refers to ‘The Theatre of the Invisible – Made – Visible: the notion that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear’ (1982: 42). It is a theatre which, Brook contends, has died in the West but is preserved in the East (Citation1982: 45).

4The artistic director explained the rationale thus: ‘The Greek choral odes sometimes display characteristics [phrases such as invocations, metre/rhythm, ritual formulae] of the genres of extra-dramatic choral lyric such as songs of lamentation, victory, procession, wedding songs, maiden songs, songs of blessing, and so on. The choral odes of tragedy are thus a synthesis, a melange, of songs from other genres. We do not know much about the dances in ancient Greece, but we assume there is a close relationship between rhythm and dance. Jaipongan is a melange of dancing styles and so I thought it would fit’ (personal communication).

5I am obliged to Professor David Wiles and his admirable study Greek theatre performance: An introduction (2000) for some of this analysis.

6The composer, Jamie Masters, is a classical scholar and musician.

7Gillian Roberts trained and worked professionally as an actress for many years before studying dance in Java starting in the early 1990s. She now performs and gives workshops in both Javanese and Balinese dance, and specialises in East Javanese dance. She trained extensively in West Javanese dance with the choreographer Hidayat in London before joining the third cast.

8 Tembang is traditional melody used in Balinese dance drama – both in arja and, to a lesser extent, in topeng. A fairly simple melody is created around two or three notes and then elaborated by the singer through complex vocal improvisation.

9 Selendang are the long, wide scarves that Javanese dancers wear at the waist, the ends of which are held by the fingertips and used in myriad ways in traditional dance.

10This was the response of one undergraduate viewer (feedback session, January 1999).

11This thoroughly Balinese annual event has featured numerous intercultural collaborative exercises, both musical and theatrical. These include in recent years performances of Sophocles' Oedipus performed as Arja (‘Balinese opera’) and a version of the Ramayana combining Indian bharatnatyam with Balinese Kecak and Gambuh.

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