Sudi Dancing School

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We were supposed to visit the Sudi Dancing School the day we flew from Java to Bali. Since we were so late, that didn’t happen. Luckily our guide was able to arrange an alternate time for us. We slipped it in between the Sacred Monkey Forest and a visit to a puppet master.

They welcomed us in full regalia.

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We were treated to a few performances, including one in which the dancers portray chickens. The motions were remarkably good, but not as much pecking as I’d expected. Notice the wings painted on the capes.

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They had one award-winning male dancer. He was clearly the pride of the school. He performed a dance that involved a lot of stomping. Later I ran across a statue that looked just like him. The statue was three times as old.

BTW, he’s only 7 years old and had been doing it for 8 months.

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The musicians sit on either side of the stage. Most of the instruments are gamelans. A gamelan is a lot like a xylophone. One of the people on our group had played gamelan before. She and I gave it a try. It’s easy to strike the notes, but right after striking, you have to pinch the bars to keep them from ringing endlessly. This takes a great deal of co-ordination.

They come in a range of tones. The man sitting in front is the leader and everyone else fills in. The also play drums, and for ceremonies they add gongs. The school also offered classes for musicians.

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And of course we sere supposed to try it ourselves. The students provided examples of what we were supposed to do.

Most of the students come three times a week after school. The school offers a full range of classes for several age groups. The students come in from eight different villages.

One class or another takes place each day. They had kids ranging from six years old to teenagers. Some had only been doing it for one month. Others have done it for years.

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Both of our tour guides had taken dance as children and joined in for part of the practice. For them it was nostalgic.

In this kind of dance, everything is important, right down to the movement of the eyes. We practiced staring up to the left and down to the right while squatting and pointing the fingers and toes just so.

This man is the head of the school. He was full of enthusiasm and warmth.

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I gave it a go, but you can’t expect someone with serious arthritis to do this.

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There are students who become professional dancers. They have competitions, and have won many trophies. Squint, and you can see trophies lining the support beams of the roof.

They charge the equivalent of 30 cents per student per class to cover the salaries of the teachers. Some of their workshops are free, particularly in the school head’s home town.

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They also have special classes for doing the makeup.

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