Unlikely most of the West where God is dead, Bali is an island where spirits of good

and evil are very much alive and performances are frequently interrelated with
them in one way or another (Performance in Bali, 38p). I remember myself
reading this book a year ago. And this particular sentence made me feel happy:
Finally I found congenials.
My desire to establish spiritual theatre based on Vedic scriptures brought me to MA
program in East 15. When I made a decision to study there i had no idea about
module in Bali which is so deeply related to Vedic scriptures and spirituality. I
strongly believe that there are no accidents in our lifes and everything happens for
a reason. The fact that I am here in Bali, gives me confidence that I am on a right
path and inspires even more to follow my dream.
Theoretical side or following Vedas
According to the earliest worlds performing arts manual NATYA SASTRSA , compiled
by the sage Bharata Muni, demigods approached Lord Brahma asking to create a
form of artistic expression that utilizes visual, musical, narrative and poetic devices.
In response, Brahma created drama . Describing his new creation, Brahma said:
Drama will become a source of education for the world. As SASTRAS shows
original purpose of drama was not entertainment and I am firm believe that theatre
has much higher power. As we learned with Dr. Ida Bagus Putu Suamba , Art is
taken as mode of worship and means for self realization. Arts are for liberation.
Purity should be attempted by artists. With arts one can become make tender and
eradicate negative sides of character. Art has function to purify macrocosmos and
microcosmos. All these ideas are vivid in Balinese art and it is a milestone for my
own future theatre work. Although there are many examples how amazing Balinese
performing arts can be spoiled by tourism. We had chance to watch Kecak, the most
unique Balinese dance which was terribly performed to entertain tourists.
After living in India for some time and studying Vedic scriptures it was interesting to
compare Balinese and Indian perception of Vedas. I noticed quite a few times during
the module that philosophy and religion of Balinese people not always follows Vedic
teaching as they are, even though Balinese recognize Vedas as the highest
authority. Very often Vedic terms or philosophy here are converted in Balinese way.
These contradictions pushed me to go back to Vedic scriptures and check the
information we were taught. For example: Balinese spirits are divided into 3
functions (Triguna): Satwam (essentially, heart-based truth), Rajah (thought based
motive) and Tamah (emotion based decisions) (Performance in Bali, 37p.
Interestingly, Triguna in Mahabharata has slightly different definition. Three Gunas
there have a meaning of 3 different qualities of material nature, not 3 types of
spirits as Balinese explanation. All these 3 Gunas are present in everyone and
everything. Similarly, food, relationships, knowledge and actions are detailed in
terms of the tree Gunas in the Mahabharata.Interestingly, our tutors many Sanskrit
term and Vedic cultural elements like to originate from Bali. Even though the roots

of those elements and terms came from ancient India. According to our professor,
RASA (although there are subtle nuances of difference in the way the word is
defined in Ayrveda , in poetics and in theology, it is generally understood to mean
taste or savor. Its meaning can also be extended to dramatic sentiment or aesthetic
enjoyment) THEORY which centralises Balinese philosophy of art, is derived from
Bali. Again RASA Theory can be found in Bharatas Natya Sastra, not in Balinese
roots. The word RASA itself can be tracked back to the TATTIRIYA UPANISAD, which
states: RASO VAI SAH ultimate reality is embodied in aesthetic experience.
Practical side or applying NATYA SASTRA
In my first impression , Balinese performing arts reflect the laws of dramatic
performances written by Bharata Muni in Natya Sastra. He devides dramatic
presentation into four categories: VACHIKA the art of voice, intonation and speech
delivery. ANGIKA movements, gesture, poses of the body and limbs. ARHAYA and
NEPATHAGA make up and costumes as well as stage props and decorations and
SATTVIKA the conforming of the actors consciousness to the part he has to play
and the emotions he has to convey. All these four categories was quite significant
during our module and shows we saw. We learned about VACHIKA while studing
Topeng with dr. I Nyoman Catra. He gave aus an amazing lecture on voice techniecs.
Each of us were traying to crate different voices and see how it effects various
masked characters. It was interesting to compare stage voice lectures I had back in
Lithuania and Dr. Catras lessons. Its pitty we had very short time with him, as it
would be very interesting to explore his teachings further. ANGIKA or movements
was introduced to us by few different teachers. We learned LEGONG KRATON
(female classical dance) from Ni Wayan Seniasih, the most beautiful teacher and
kindest person. I wish I was more attracted to Balinese dance, as we had such an
amazing teacher. Unfortunately, it did not me that much.
Even though we did not learn much about make up and costumeswe could see how
seriously it is applied in practical: A large component of stage performance is
costuming and make up. The Balinese take this quite seriously and would never
consider performing on stage without elaborate alterations in their presentation
(Balinese dance, drama and music, 67p.). Truly, we were surprised when all
performing students suddenly appeared for our final projects with fantastic make up
, even though nobody was even asked.
I was highly impressed with Kedak Budi Setiawan (the puppeteer) who introduced us
Wayang Kulit, shadow puppet theatre and kindly performed an amazing short scene.
He talentedly demonstrated his vocal qualities and manipulated few different
puppets at the same time. With all honesty, I was quite pessimistic about shadow
puppetry, but having classes with this talented artist changed my opinion and I
would love to incorporate this form of theatre in my future work. On the other hand,
I had difficulties with our workshop when we were making our own puppet. I wish

there was an option to work with other material, not just cows skin, as I was not
able to participate in this workshop due religious reasons.
Full moon festival in ABIAN SEMAL village was one of the most special experiences
and one of the happiest days in Bali. Astonishing venue, sweet Balinese people and
our performance made the evening really memoriable. I was specially glad to see
professor Sedana happy with our show, as being not the easiest group we caused
him few worries during the module. I was always fascinated about Kecak (since I
saw it on a movie many years ago), even though I never knew what it is all about
and where it comes from. Moreover, I never could imagine being myself a part of
Kecak. I think professor Sedana is fantastic Kecak artist and teacher and I am very
grateful for this opportunity to be a part ot this amazing show we did on a Full Moon
Festival.
The sad side or final project
For my final project I decided to work on Lithuanian myth. There is a musical based
on this myth50 years ago. The musical itself became a legend in the country and
many people still watch it even today. For me it was interesting to express
something very Lithuanian in a Balinese way. Also I chose to incorporate traditional
Lithuanian folk songs instead of using Balinese music. These particular songs are
very archaic and mostly were used for ritual purposes. Folk music which I chose to
work with dates back to 16th century and it is on UNESCOs list of the masterpieces
of the oral heritage of humanity.
The idea was to have a combination of Wayang and few different types of dancers.
One of the main characters is incredibly beautiful girl. For that reason I decided to
have Legong dance in my scene, as this particular dance was intended for
performance by prepubescent girls who symbolized celestial angels. Also there is
peasant who communicates with his beloved women (this beautiful girl) who is a
puppet through a shadow screen, because he can not concure her heart. Finally,
when he gets her hand (after making a deal with a demon) she comes out from a
screen as a Lagong dancer.
I havent expected that I will have to go for plan B even before the rehearsals
started. And even plan B, which was a shorter version of my idea, did not work out
as well. And here is my brief tragedy :
Day 1: After many times contacting my in English and Indonesian to make sure they
did not forget our rehearsal and not hearing back from them I contacted one of the
English speaking students (organizer 1) who informed me that my actors cancelled
our meeting and will come tomorrow.
Day 2: Waiting for my actors in the campus no signs of appearance. Trying to
contact them no response. Trying to contact organizer 1 no response. Finally, I
got to meet another English speaking students (Organizer 2), who informed me

that Organizer 1 got ill and nobody knows where my actors are. After spending with
Organizer 2 an hour, discussing my project and etc. he suggested that tomorrow he
will play himself in my piece and will bring 2 more required students. I happily left
campus and emailed professor Sedana (just in case Organizer 2 gets ill by
tomorrow) to ask for help. Result no help.
Day 3: Waiting for Organizer 2 and his friends in the campus no sign of
appearance. Calling to him no response. Somebody informed me that Organizer
2 got ill. Litien trying to convince Professor Sedana that I need students. Result he
texts one of my actors who never showed up and asks him to call me.
Day 4: project day. Organizer 1 and Organizer 2 miraculously gets well and
appears in the campus healthy and happy.
I am specially grateful to Wendy, who suggested to work together and that way I
was still able to coloborate with Balinese people. Even though I joined Wendys
group in the end and really enjoyed working with them, I feel I missed a lot not
having opportunity to do my own project. However, I still gained a lot from it in
terms of understanding the meaning of people you work with and got really inspired
to corporate with Balinese artists (maybe even to come back here in future to make
a project with them). Being in contact with artists to whom religion is not alien,
helped me to realize the significance of actors consciousness (SATTVIKA the fourth
element in Bhara Munis .) and see the difference what is like to work with atheists
and non atheists. I am not criticizing or nesmerkiu and not neglecting atheists in
any way. Its just very subtle moment which I would love to achieve in my dream
theatre where the main goal is devotional service to Supreme Personality of
Godhead through performing arts. Professional atheistic actors have no sense of
devotional service and therefore although they can perform very artistically, there is
no life in such performances. Through the medium of the performing arts, the the
trancscendental actor, being motivated by compassion wants to share with his
audience a genuine insight into the nature of our existence. Watching Balinese
students reahearsing and performing I felt that all these moments could be more
easily achieved with them. Working with self-realized person in a spiritual theatre
will have different potency than working with an atheist no matter how talented
actor is .
I wish our final projects were organized better. Most of Balinese students are
wonderful people and amazing artist to work with. Lack of clarity and organization
did not give us the full opportunity to do collaborate with them. Majority of us
missed their first rehearsal due to crazy schedule which was sent out to us, but not
to students. Cultural differences, Balinese time and other aspects can be
tolerated to some extend, but as we are in an educational institution there should
be a tleast some sort of organizational level. Also it is sad that our pitches were not
actually pitches, as the students did not chose anybodys ideas and they did not

chose with whom they would love to work with. We were given any student, who
were randomly divided by Organizers to each of us.
The other side or RWA-BHINEDA
This module to me was as rich and colorful as Balinese culture itself. It brought
many joys and tears, many discoveries and disappointments. Its always interesting
to see how theory is expressed in real life. Theory of RWA-BHINEDA (Balinese belief
in two binary oppositions which exist in every sphere of life) was most distinctly
expressed in my practical experience. As we learned, every entitys existence is
always with its opposite couple, eg: Sekala niskala, dewa (god, light) bhuta
(demon, darkness), segara (sea) gunung (mountain), ulu (top) teben (down),
purusa/lanang (male, consciousness), pradhana (female, unconsciousness), rahina
(day)- wengi (night), ayu (goodness) ala (bedness), bhuwana agung (macrososm)
bhuwana alit (microcosm).
It was fascinating to experience how this RWA-BHINEDA principle also works in
Balinese ethics based on Dasa sila (ten moral virtues, which consists of Panca Yama
and Panca Niyama) and how actions contradicts the philosophy which is being
preached.
Panca yama (five restrictions, which consists of :
1. Non violence. We were taught about non violence, but some of the students
high level of violence.
2. Choose to live celibate
3. Not to speak lies. The level of lies I went through is not that high even in
western schools where righteousness is not stressed as much as here.
4. Not to get involved in inappropriate modes of worldly life
5. Not to steal or to take possessions of others.

Panca niyma, five observances, which consists of:

1. One should not be careless. We had many situations where care was needed,
but non was received.
2. Not to get violent with anger. We were taught about anger management.
Balinese hindu religion is about balance and this is sought on all levels:
physical, mental and spiritual. Therefore it is quite important to keep strong
emotions under control and try to remain polite and pleasant even in traying
circumstances. Do not shout, do not get angry these negative emotions are
regarded as dangerous and burdening others with your feelings. However, all
this does not have much meaning in reall life as anger was exposed towards
a student from Balinese culture representer . ..
3. Devotion to elders
4. Mutterings of prayers and purification
5. Do not eat too much

Also we have been taught about TAT TWAN ASI (you are me), a principle of
recognizing equality or sameness of every creature in this world, but there was no
any genuine compation for other living being (a student) in a real situation.
Another phenomen is temple ethicet , behavior in a place which is considered to be
wholy. Balinese authorities are free to use intoxicants and through rubbish under
their feet. Even though I read about it in Performance in Bali, reading was not that
surprising as seeing it happening in reality.
Witnessing all this made me question : if Balinese culture and religiosity is really a
life in daily life or its just superficial , technically performed rituals. Yes, Bali is
highly ritualistic place, but for me rituals and spirituality are two different subjects
and the second one can not be find so easily as normally Bali is described : Bali
has long been known for its deep spirituality. Actually, all these situations had a
mirrow effect on me and I was forced to look at myself. I am practicing some rituals
for quite a few years now, but being here I noticed that very often its just rituals
without a deeper inier content. Now I see that the porpuse of those distruptions
was to brake us from our complacency and not be satisfied on a surface, to give us
a sence of real need to dive deeper. Balinese example inspired me to reconsider my
spiritual life and start things more seriously. If this transformed ritual does not take
place in our heart to create good character, personal integrity, it is all waste of time.
What is the use of rituals and what is the use of high philosophy if it does not create
a good character. I tried to see a positive side in this experience and learn other
things. It defenetely uncovered a lot negativity in myself and my own weaknesses
were pointed out. I guess this is part of learning.
Balinese aesthetic concept and culture gave inspiration to focus on my personal
goals and helped to understand deeper my own artistic concept. Therefore, whole
cultural and educational experience had a great value. It pushed me even stronger
to concentrate on my artistic and personal goals. For some reason it gave me a
feeling as if a new chapter was opened in my life by the end of the module..
Although my expectations to see highly spiritual performances, where god is in the
centre and to learn from spiritualy elevated people brought a disappointment.
However, I do understand that we saw very little and that reall gems do exist.
Nowadays western theatre usually reflects the dilemmas of our modern society,
dealing with sex, drugs, broken families, false hopes and frustrations they lead to.
Balinese theatre is clearly orientated to completely different direction. Which I found
way more closer to me. Balinese artists have God in the centre and I believe this
help to expand ones abilities unlimitedly, because God himself is unlimited. Just like
Balinese people never become tired of seeing stories from Ramayana or
Mahabharata, because they carry higher spiritual message and glorify God and his
devotees. Coming from West where hardly any of earlier mentioned principles
(purity should be attempted by artists, art should be a mode of worship and etc.)
are applied in arts, where to shock the audience is more important than to enlighten
and where a disease permeates society in the form of atheism, voidism and

cynicism, i was very happy to be far away from all this madness, where students
and artists very often are obsessed with showing of their intimate bodily parts
during the performances.
I felt very lucky to be in healthy environment where science (unlike in western
countries) is not the highest authority. Being able to have conversations about
karma, reincarnation, God, etc. and not be judged awaken my eagerness to learn
more how art can express deepest feelings of religiosity.

Topeng masked theatre demonstration and practice.

Wayang puppet demonstration and making.
If you practice religion, at the same time you are practicing arts.
The musicians must play as one ensemble, to be NGES (musically tight). There is
no room for individuality 23p.
TYransform curse into a blessing