Sunday, May 20, 2012 – On this bright Sunday, I found myself slipping into Le Poisson Rouge and down their steps for a matinee performance by New York’s Gamelan Dharma Swara group. The space was dark, set up with chairs for the sit-down lunch crowd, and the stage was curiously lined with the golden-hued gamelan instruments including the metallophones (gambang, slenthem, saron, gender), gongs, and other percussion instruments (like the kettle-like kenang and bonang) of the Balinese art form that predates the arrival of Hindu and Buddhist culture on the islands of Indonesia.

From the first strike of the mallet, this orchestra filed the air with the pulsing, hypnotic sounds of ancient Bali, with flurries of percussion rising and falling, droning at shifting tempos, casting a psychedelic spell. A dancer emerged in bright traditional dress for a song, then a second and a third for another song, all brightly wrapped in yellow, green, red, and gold colors, topped by a headdresses with tassels that accentuated every turn, and pop and lock movement that they were making in response to the music, and their eyes were made up, highlighting facial expressions, suggestive, and almost tick-like at times, which added to the mystery of the show.

Led by two native Indonesians, I Nyoman Saptanyana (music director) and Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati (dance director), Gamelan Dharma Swara is composed of players from around the world and has achieved the rare success of being  the first non-Balinese group to compete in the annual Gong Kebyar competitions at the Bali Arts Festival.

This performance also included a section of shadow puppetry with the lights turned way low, and featured a lit screen which a

bearded puppet master sat behind and fanned little characters on sticks in the light while narrating a story in a series of different voices. This began in his native language, but then shifted to English, and involved some traditional style family stories. It started off exciting, with the performer’s great voice, but was the only part of the show to really start to drag as it took up nearly as much time as the purely gamelan segment, but was nowhere near as dynamic, with gamelan used only in spurts to emphasize and accentuate the play. I felt that the music was actually underutilized during this part, possibly because of the improvisational aspect.

Nevertheless, this underscores an element of Balinese music that makes it so impressive: it is a living breathing art with long ties

reaching hundreds of years back through the ages, but is still growing and changing in the present, with different forms of gamelan on each region of the various islands, and practitioners fanning out around the world spreading the art.

This freshness and willingness to take a risk makes Balinese music standout among the world music scene in the US.

Here in NYC the Gamelan Dharmaz Swara has presented their music to audiences at the Museum of Modern Art, Joe’s Pub, and the Asia Society, as well as run workshops and taught classes out of the Indonesian Consulate. To catch their next show or even join a class or workshop, check here.