Gamelan and Dance Residencies
For an in-depth exploration into Indonesian arts, Sumunar presents residencies in educational settings.
Artists Joko Sutrisno and Tri Sutrisno are classically trained performers who have become highly skilled in working with school children and helping educators integrate the arts into the curriculum. Over the past 13 years, more than 10,000 students have participated in their workshops and residencies.
Both students with western musical training and those with no prior music experience find gamelan music and dance interesting and enjoyable.
Indonesian music residencies teach students about a fascinating new culture and give them insights about geography, literature, language, and customs entirely different from their ordinary lives. Students are challenged to learn a new kind of melody and rhythm and an entirely different method of teaching.
Residencies can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. IPAAM will provide instruments and deliver them to your school.
Gamelan and dance residencies are booked through Sumunar—contact us at info@sumunar.org or 612-729-6737. Schools can provide full or partial funding. Funding assistance can be sought through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, COMPAS, the St. Paul Foundation, and other agencies. Sumunar can assist you in the grant-seeking process; please ask for details.
Some of these activities are funded in part through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
How are gamelan and dance taught? View this short movie for an overview
More residency examples:
In March, 2011, Joko and Tri Sutrisno taught a residency at the Main Street School of Performing Arts, Hopkins, MN. At the end of the residency, the students put on a performance for their parents and class mates. Here are a few clips from that concert:
Caping A dance inspired by the bamboo hat used by rice farmers, choreographed by Tri Sutrisno
Kecak This highly syncopated acapella piece from Bali is a lot of fun to perform
Resources
Here are some resources that could be useful in teaching
Growing rice Indonesia. This video shows how rice is grown along with some scenes of both the countryside and life in rural parts of the country.
A visit to the gong factory shows how gamelan instruments are made.
Making batik. Here's a visit to a batik factory .
Shadow puppet show: This 8-minute summary shows scenes from an all-night wayang kulit show.
Indonesian men dance! Here's a short clip from a dance/drama in Sragen City in which men dance with remarkable grace and balance.
Saman: The Dance of a Thousand Hands, from Aceh
Angkllung are bamboo instruments that are very easy to play. Here students from a school in Bandung give a concert
UNESCO has a great video on shadow puppets that shows them being made as well as some excellent performance clips. It's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfydro4X2t0
What Students Are Saying
Here are some things that students have said about Sumunar performances:
"Thanks for letting me hit the big gong. It was awesome"
"Dear Joko and Tri, Thank you for coming to our school and sharing your knowledge with us through this amazing program; we truly appreciate your time and effort towards putting together the final preformance (sic). I thank you two very, very much."
"It was an experience I will never forget."
"I really loved the music and dances....the culture is very interesting to study about. Thank you so much."
"The monkey chanting was so much fun. The chanting was easy to learn; thought the motions were hard to learn at first, but now it is easy. The whole experience was very fun."
"I really appreciated having the opportunity to participate in the Gamelan experience. I enjoyed the opportunity it gave us to learn about Indonesia..I really enjoy when you do something worth your time and this definitely was. Once again thank you."
"Dear Tri, Terima Kasih! (thanks) You are the greatest person I've ever met! I thought dancing was boring until you came. You rock!"
"Thanx a lot - I'm the kid that said "strange," remember?"
"Thank you for giving us Gamelan music!"
"Thanks for all you have done for me. I hope you're here next year."
For other residency inquiries, please contact Sumunar.
