Lane Community College's Balinese Dance Group Tirtha Tari is please to announce their invitation to perform in the prestigious annual Bali Arts Festival June 21st, 2014.
Every year, the Indonesian government sponsors the Bali Arts Festival to celebrate Balinese art and culture. The month-long festival features the finest performing artists on the island. Bonnie Simoa and her students have been invited to perform the rarely performed old style traditional Legong Keraton Playon.
Bonnie Simoa, lead dance faculty at LCC, has traveled regularly to Bali since 1996 to study traditional Balinese dance, particularly the rare and complex "Legong Keraton Playon" from the last surviving Legong teacher of her generation, Sang Ayu Ketut Muklen. The new generation of dancers in Bali prefer to study the newer truncated versions of the classical dances, thus the preservation of this old style is threatened.
Since 2010, dance students at LCC have studied Balinese dance. Six serious students have emerged, and have risen to the challenge of learning the exacting and complicated forty-minute classical Legong dance. They will travel to Bali as part of "Exploring the Roots of Traditional Balinese Dance" cultural study program this summer.
In addition to performing in the Bali Arts Festival, the students will meet, study, and perform the Legong for the 87 year old master teacher Sang Ayu Ketut Muklen.
You can see Tirtha Tari perform traditional Balinese dance this weekend at the Asian Celebration 2014, Lane County Fairgrounds Saturday Feb. 16th at 1:30pm, and Sunday Feb. 17th at 10:55am.
The Lane Dance Foundation is gratefully accepting tax deductible donations to help fund this important cultural exchange project. Checks should be made out to: Lane Community College Foundation (note: Balinese Dance Fund) and sent to: Lane Community College Foundation, 4000 E. 30th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97405. For further information contact Bonnie Simoa, 541-463-5645, simoab@lanecc.edu.
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Lane Community College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
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