Bali in Brazil: perceptions of ‘otherness’ by the ‘other’^*

* Thank you to all those in Brazil who invited and hosted me, thanks too to all the students and performers, many more than have been mentioned in this paper. Thank you to Barbara Hatley, Brett Hough, Margaret Coldiron and Kerensa Johnston who read the draft of this paper, provided feedback and helped me to make it sound a bit 'less Italian'.

Abstract

This article explores the experiences and observations of an Italian performer/academic teaching Balinese mask dance-drama (topeng) in Brazil. Expatriate status, living between Australia, Indonesia and Italy yet teaching in Brazil, provided a means to critically reflect upon the process of representing ‘otherness’ (Balinese topeng) by being the ‘other’ (a foreigner) in another country (Brazil). A Brazilian trip (October‒November 2013) resulted in a feeling of self-doubt and underlying guilt for not being the ‘original other’ (Balinese). This sensation would not completely disappear even when it became clear that the invitation was for ‘a mission’ to change the discourse on Balinese dance-drama in theatre training in Brazil. This discourse of the ‘exotic other’ was not new to the author, as it was the same one that had stimulated an interest in Balinese dance, drama and music. The imagined Bali of the Brazilian interlocutors had once been the author’s imagined Bali, until it had changed through the experience of living and learning on the island. In the same way, some of them had already had a similar experience, albeit of much shorter duration, which had enabled them to also see beyond the exotic, decontexualised, imagined Bali. In teaching and performing practice the author aims to re-contextualise and ground the imagined other into a familiar reality. This article details the process and insights gained during the Brazilian journey and to reflect upon the multiple voices encountered along the way, which mediated the sense of ‘otherness’.

Keywords:

• otherness
• Orientalism
• Balinese topeng
• actor training
• cross-cultural performance

Notes

* Thank you to all those in Brazil who invited and hosted me, thanks too to all the students and performers, many more than have been mentioned in this paper. Thank you to Barbara Hatley, Brett Hough, Margaret Coldiron and Kerensa Johnston who read the draft of this paper, provided feedback and helped me to make it sound a bit 'less Italian'.

¹ ‘On the Balinese Theatre’ was initially published in 1931 in Nouvelle Revue Française, as a review of the event (in Savarese 2001, p. 51) and then included in The Theatre and Its Double ([1938] 1964).

² The English translation of the title is ‘Breathing into the Mask. The Body Takes Form in Balinese Dance-drama Topeng: A Learning Experience’.

³ For an example of this form see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvtOFNShFqc.

⁴ Personal communication with I Made Djimat, May 2015, Naples.

⁵ Original text: Isso é um grande aprendizado para o ator ocidental, que muitas vezes busca resultados rápidos, ou aposta também mais no próprio talento, deixando de lado a dedicação à uma técnica. A arte balinesa nos ensina também sobre humildade e também respeito pela tradição e transmissão do mestre. Ela mostra a incrível capacidade de precisão, refinamento, cuidado com o detalhe. Mostra o teatro mantido tal como foi em suas origens, originário do ritual, com a corporeidade latente, e com o uso da máscara.