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Balinese Extravaganza 4th June 04

AIAA recently presented the Balinese Extravaganza performance at Byron Bay High School with 600 children from 10 local schools within the North Coast Region area. A group of the AIAA staff members had gathered together to create the stage sets for the exciting show due to start the following morning. Beautiful pieces of antique Ikat were used for the front of the stage along with gold brocade borders, surrounded by flowers and traditional umbul2 [flags] from Bali. Statues were brought in by Wally Halversen from his shop to enhance the temple scene and fruit offerings were spread throughout the stage. The whole scene resembled a traditional market scene leading into a Balinese temple.

The story line was a theme of a young Balinese girl waking up in her village, to the sound of the bamboo flute, played by Margi Grace. She hurries off to her dance class performed with Ibu Yeni and the Grafton female dancers on her way to the market and then proceeds onto the temple. During the journey she meets a martial arts group led by Darren Rogers of the Silat group who are practicing their martial arts moves, she then sits down to watch them. The children were very excited to see them do their skilful Silat moves, especially the boys. During the whole show Katrina Folkwell showed her slides taken in Bali, much to the delight of the children who thoroughly enjoyed them, especially the monkeys shots, which made them giggle a lot.

The young girl then walks by the village school and hears the children singing, performed by Fernleigh Public School. All the women then carry their offerings to the temple where they watch the dancers performing the old man dance Topeng Tua, by Bapak Nyoman Suma. He danced to the Balinese music and moved amongst the children off stage, in the audience, much to their delight. Ibu Sri from the Gold Coast then performed the feminine offering dance, Cili Naya.

Adi Witono Waluyo, a traditional dance teacher from Denpasar danced the Panjis Semirang in his bright golden red costume. Then young Balinese girl Nuri performed the Condong dance from Legong Lasem. The highlight of the show was the huge two-man Barong, which was brought especially from Toowoomba for the performance. The children loved this, then the show closed with the Barong and the Rangda dance performed by Ibu Sri, Yana Sutiana, Bpk Nyoman and Jamie Graham.

AIAA expresses a big thank you to all staff members for the great work of putting on the Balinese Extravaganza and a big thank you to all the wonderful performers who came out of their way from Grafton and the Gold Coast to perform for us in Byron Bay in this extraordinary show. It was so successful that AIAA have had requests to do a show in Grafton and Brisbane in August and will be following that up.

A big thank you to all the teachers from the following schools : Fernleigh PS, Byron Community School, St. Xaviers College, Mullumbimby PS, Main Arm PS, Wilson Creek PS, The Channon PS, Bangalow PS, Emmanuel College, Ballina and finally our sponsors Byron High who contributed to bring so many children together. Thanks also to BETC and DEWR for sponsoring this project and to Green Garage, Crosby’s fruit shop, Shakira Designs, Byron Cinema, Baskin and Robbins, In the Pink, ANZ Bank and Mullumbimby Library for donating prizes, props or displaying children's art.

Review written by Radha Koch, photos by Michael Flatt

 

 

Bali Art School Competition

A collection of beautiful artwork has been drawn by school children from the North Coast region in conjunction with a performance of Balinese traditional dancing recently held in Byron High School. The show was attended by 600 students from the area where they drew inspiration for the work. Schools include St. Xaviers Catholic College, Main Arm School, Byron High, Emmanuel College, Wilsons Creek, The Channon, P.S. Fernleigh P.S. and Bangalow P.S.The work was displayed around Byron for two weeks and will be sent to Senwati Gallery Bali for display. The drawings are part of the Balinese Art Competition and the prizes are offered in age categories with prizes of movie passes donated from Byron Cinema, ice cream cakes from In The Pink, and ice creams from Baskins and Robbins and ANZ Bank in Byron Bay.
The competition and the Balinese Extravaganza have been created by unemployed local people undertaking training and work experience as part of the Australia Indonesia Arts Alliance [AIAA] ‘Work For The Dole’ Project. A proposal is in the making between Ubud and Byron Bay for a sister-city relationship which will enhance the cultural exchange between the two towns and create many more inspirational exchange activities for school children, artists and musicians in the future.

Below are some of the winning children's drawings from Fernleigh and Main Arm Upper School.