THE RAMAYANA BALLET
An Ancient Myth Comes To Life in the Modern Age


Love and loyalty, hatred and jealousy, justice and revenge -
has the world changed much over the centuries? Come hear
Prince Rama's story-Bali style-and his desire for peace in a
world of conflict on Saturday, May 17th, 7:30 PM, at the Cleo
Parker Robinson Dance Theatre. (View the postcard at
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/TunasMekar/lst)

How did Denver come to host the premier of this extraordinary
evening of music and dance? For fifteen years, Denver's own
gamelan (an Indonesian orchestra of percussive and melodic
instruments) has been presenting concerts to the public after
consistent and focused weekly rehearsals under a Balinese
Artist-In-Residence. The Ramayana Ballet is the culmination of
another concerted effort to present high-quality cross-cultural
productions of Balinese music and dance. Cross-cultural? The
Ramayana is an ancient myth told in many Asian countries -
Indonesia included. Bali is the only Hindu island in the largely
Islamic nation.

Thanks in part to a grant from the Denver SCFD, nine
authentic Balinese dancers will dramatize a portion of the
Ramayana story (the entire story would take many hours to tell),
five of whom will be visiting from Los Angeles and Chicago, and
four who are family members of Artist-In-Residence, I Made
Lasmawan. Lasmawan lives in Colorado Springs and teaches
at Colorado College and throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
The dancers include: Ni Ketut Marni, Ni Nyoman Erawati, Ni
Sagung Mirah Kertayuda, I Gusti Ngurah Kertayuda, I Wayan
Susila, I Nyoman Cerita, Ni Sagung Chika Kertayuda, I Putu
Tankas Adi Mayena and I Made Tangkas Ade Wijaya.

Other program pieces include Pak Lasmawan's newest
composition "Subak," the "Kebyar Trompong" dance, and "Catur
Angurit."

This promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can
witness the Ramayana Ballet on May 17th, 7:30 PM, at the Cleo
Parker Robinson Dance Theatre, 119 Park Avenue West. Tickets
for this one-night-only event are $15 general admission and $10
for seniors, students and children 12 and under. Seating is
limited. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling (303)
433-3782. For more information visit http://www.tunasmekar.org
or call (303) 433-3782.

Other sponsors include Denver's Mayor Wellington Webb and
the Denver Mayor's Office of Art, Culture and Film; Synergy Media
group (http://www.synergymediagroup.net); Thai Association of
Colorado; Ibu Phyllis Tremmel, "Mother" of the gamelan tradition
in the Rocky Mountain Region; and Ten Thousand Villages,
Denver (http://www.villages.ca, click on "stores" then search "co"
for address/directions and upcoming events).

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Gamelan Tunas Mekar, founded in 1988, is a group of 20
musicians from Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
Balinese gamelan music is highly rhythmic, utilizing various
gongs, drums and metallophones, or gangsas, (bronze bars
suspended over bamboo resonators and struck with a wooden
mallet). Bamboo flutes, or sulings, embellish the melodies of
the metallophones, which are encased in ornate hand-carved
jackfruit wood. The large semaradana orchestra is actually two
orchestras in one and has to be heard to be believed. The root of
the word gamelan means 'to hammer', and it is truly powerful
and exciting to hear 20 people 'hammer' heavy bronze bars in
synchronized rhythms and accompanied by the sweet sound of
bamboo flute, singing - Bali style - and grounded by large gongs.