The University of Illinois is one of the most culturally diverse schools in the nation. This diversity leads to many celebrations of the different nationalities represented in our school. I went to one such celebrations on April 1st, 2016 where the Indonesian Students Club hosted an Indonesian cultural night. This event, held once a year, took place at UIUC’s Lincoln Hall and was attended by many students, town people and even the Acting Consulate General of Indonesia in Chicago. Many of the performers were of Indonesian decent and they performed traditional Balinese dances accompanied by traditional music. There were also traditional instrument performances during the show. This show had a lot of different components to it that pertained to
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The gamelan performance in particular was one of the main performance that had a connection between the performer and the sacred. A lot of the dances also told stories through the dance. While the music was important to the performance a lot of the actual story was told through the dance. For example, the Bambangan Cakil dance was a dance that told the story of a war between a knight and giant. The flowing movements in the dance represented the knight and the rigid movements represented the giant. The change in character was also accompanied by a change in tempo and timbre of the music. This relation shows how the dance and the music complemented each other in the performance. Most of the stories told by the dances had some sort of connection to god.
Going to the Indonesian Cultural Night gave me an opportunity to see dances and musical performances that are not easily viewable. The connection between the visual aspects of the event and the audial aspects gave me a different understanding of the music. I thought that a majority of the people who would attend the event would be of Balinese origin, but I was surprised to see that many different kinds of people attended. Going to an event like this cultural night can give audience members a deeper feel for the music because more than just the audial aspect of the music is
The gamelan performance in particular was one of the main performance that had a connection between the performer and the sacred. A lot of the dances also told stories through the dance. While the music was important to the performance a lot of the actual story was told through the dance. For example, the Bambangan Cakil dance was a dance that told the story of a war between a knight and giant. The flowing movements in the dance represented the knight and the rigid movements represented the giant. The change in character was also accompanied by a change in tempo and timbre of the music. This relation shows how the dance and the music complemented each other in the performance. Most of the stories told by the dances had some sort of connection to god.
Going to the Indonesian Cultural Night gave me an opportunity to see dances and musical performances that are not easily viewable. The connection between the visual aspects of the event and the audial aspects gave me a different understanding of the music. I thought that a majority of the people who would attend the event would be of Balinese origin, but I was surprised to see that many different kinds of people attended. Going to an event like this cultural night can give audience members a deeper feel for the music because more than just the audial aspect of the music is