Kamajaya Arts Ins.

Our Tradition: Promoting cultural art heritage, integrating tradition and innovation through artistic collaboration and academic creativity, Kamajaya Arts Ins. is devoted to preserving and developing Balinese traditional arts, promoting international understanding, co-operation, and scholarship. Among the artists in this group include I Nyoman Sedana (Professor at ISI Denpasar), G.N.SeramaSemadi (Headmaster of SMK3/KOKAR ArtConservatory), Ketut Kodi (internationally known mask dancer/maker), Kadek Wahyu (art manager of Kesiman palace), and Sam Gold (American actor, puppeteer, and Watson Fellow).

Concept of Our East-West Creative Encounter: Through prison workshops and performing experience, sharing Balinese gamelan music, dance, and wayang puppet theatre and other ethnomusicology inputs develops the foundation of a rehabilitative process with the multicultural prison inmates. In the Balinese Siwagama mythology, the oldest extant wayang puppet theatre—along with the Balinese dance, gamelan music, topeng masked theatre, and ritual reading/chorus—was originally created and performed to release some spirits who were accidently entangled in a sudden net of demonic traps. In our era, while the art is always performed to appease the Gods and to pacify or exorcise butha-kala demonic spirits (Performance in Bali, 2007: 21-22), demonic effects of drug/narcotic/heroin have indeed trapped some people into living as prison inmates. Initially, they will benefit from a respite or even spiritual liberation through experiencing and engaging with the arts. Cultural performing arts workshops help prisoners develop key skills such as team working on how to live and work together, communication, concentration and enhance their wellbeing. Successful cultural performing arts workshops will illustrate the potential for arts based programs to not only develop strong regional cultural relationships but will also help prisoners go on and become non-offenders in the future, based on current academic research.

Overseas Performances:

Wishing you more success and happiness with the video clips from our recent performance at the Toby Theatre, Indianapolis Museum of Arts, featuring Balinese Spectacular with I Nyoman Sedana, which includes a 5-year-girl Atheny Dewi dancing and singing prodigy.

Serving as VITA (Visiting International Theatre Artists) for the Theatre Dept. Butler University, Kamajaya Arts Ins. was in residence from Sept 6th 2012 at: 5026 Boulevard Place, Apt. M102, Indianapolis, IN 46208 Tlp (317) 940-9172. One of the tasks was directing Bali Dream main stage production for which Georgian teaches students the Prologue:

12 Oct 2012: Wayang puppet Jabang Tutuka by Child Dalang Georgian, Cendrawasih by Seni-AthenyDewi, Baris by Georg, and Sendratari Rajapala by INSedana-Seniasih and Local+Diasporic Friends at the Marquand Chapel, Dept. of Sacred Music, Yale University:

31 Oct – 4 Nov and 8 – 11 Nov 2012: Bali Dreams show in hybrid form of wayang, topeng, genjek, and kecak as the Main Stage Theatre Production of Butler University.

Kamajaya Arts Ins. participated in the International Symposium, Workshop, and Festival on the Intercultural Dialogue between North east India and South east Asia held in six cities of India (Guwahati, Shillong, Agartala, Imphal, Dimapur, and New Delhi) from 19 February to 23 March 2010. Involving hundreds of artists from nine states of India, the event was jointly organized by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, in collaboration with NEZCC.

Selected from previous shows:

Below you will find photographs of Wayang shadow puppet shows: