BALINESE SHADOW PUPPET PERFORMANCE WILL BE PRESENTED AT BARD COLLEGE ON SATURDAY, MARCH 10 Event features Nyoman Catra, world-renowned Balinese choreographer and mask dancer

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY—The Asian Studies, Music, and Religion Programs at Bard College will present a Balinese shadow puppet performance on Saturday, March 10, beginning at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents on the Bard College campus. The performance, which is free and open to the public, features world-renowned choreographer and topeng (mask) dancer Nyoman Catra. Members of Hudson Valley Gamelan—John Carnes, Walt Farrell, and Bill Ylitalo—will join Andrew McGraw, director of the ensemble, and Miranda Fan, to accompany Catra on gender (a quartet of xylophones) during the performance.

The shadow puppet stories to be performed by Catra are based largely on the Hindu Ramayana and Mahabharata epics; this evening\'s performance is entitled Tresna, and is part of a class of stories known as teka-teki, or riddles, in which the audience is encouraged to guess how the story will end. This classic Balinese dramatic form of shadow puppet theater is called wayang kulit; the puppets are carved out of flat leather, suspended on sticks, and illuminated from behind a large cloth screen.

Nyoman Catra is completing a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Both he and his wife, Ibu Desak, professor of gamelan and dance at the College of the Holy Cross, will join the members of the Hudson Valley Gamelan for their spring concert on May 5.

For further information, call 845-758-7364.

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(2.16.01)

This event was last updated on 03-02-2001

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