Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This black-and-white clip shows a traditional Balinese dance, which the narrator calls 'The dance of the eyes’, accompanied by a gamelan orchestra. The clip cuts between shots of women performing, showing the complex movements of the dancers, and the musicians. A rather stilted narration describes the intricacies of the dance and the accompanying gamelan orchestra.

Educational value points

• Dance is an integral part of Balinese culture and Balinese children learn dance from an early age. The centuries-old dance tradition developed as part of religious rituals practised by the island’s predominantly Hindu population. Dances such as the one in the clip were performed at temple festivals and ceremonies as an offering to the gods and as a means of telling epic Hindu stories. Balinese dance is constantly evolving and today it functions as both ritual and entertainment, particularly for tourists.

• Balinese dance is distinguished by its highly stylised and graceful gestures, each of which carries a particular meaning. It features a polyrhythmic use of hands, fingers, face and eyes, and during the dance the eyes, which are kept wide open, look left and right in an exaggerated fashion. Facial expression is very important in conveying mood and emotion. Dancers portray a character, but through the dance are also seen to celebrate and embody the spirit world.

• Dance performances are accompanied by Gamelan Gong Kebyar, a Balinese form of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra, made up of between 20 and 30 musicians, such as the one shown here. The music, which is almost entirely percussive, is conducted by the drummer, who provides cues that integrate the actions of the musicians and dancers. Originally, gamelan orchestras performed in temples and royal courts, but after the Dutch colonisation of Bali in the mid-19th century, gamelan music was performed more widely and today most villages have an orchestra.

• As shown in the clip, most gamelan instruments consist of carved wooden frames. Within the frames are rows of bronze keys or gongs, which are struck with wooden sticks or mallets ('gamelan’ comes from the Indonesian word gamel, referring to a type of hammer). The main instruments are gongs, bronze xylophones, bronze kettles on horizontal frames, drums, flutes, zithers and a two-stringed bowed instrument. Instruments can be expensive, and so are often owned by the village and stored at the village banjar (meeting hall).

• One of the hallmarks of gamelan music, as heard here, is the use of interlocking techniques (kotekan), in which melodies are divided between musicians. When the two parts are heard together they produce an incredibly fast and intricate pattern. Until recently no Balinese music had been written down or recorded, but was passed down from generation to generation by memory alone.

• Balinese costumes are specific to the characters portrayed by each dancer and are often made of batik and gold-painted fabric, with woven patterns of gold thread. In the more elaborate dances, such as the one shown in the clip, performers wear a kamen (batik fabric) that is wrapped around the chest down to the ankles and secured by a gold-painted leather belt. The headdresses are also made of gold-painted leather, and have fresh or artificial flowers attached. Make-up is used to accentuate the dancers’ eyes.

• The clip is an excerpt from a short travelogue directed by Mel F Nichols. Between the 1930s and 1950s Nichols produced travel documentaries known as 'Skylogues’ for Universal Pictures. Intended to be shown in cinemas prior to a feature film, the travelogues were filmed in South-East Asia. They were made in a period in which air travel was still beyond the reach of the average Australian, and were designed to expand the horizons of audiences.

• The clip can be seen as indicative of Australian attitudes to Asia in the 1950s, a period when Australians were unfamiliar with Asian cultures and therefore tended to view them as 'other’ and exotic. In speaking for the Balinese and using expressions such as 'quaint native gamelan orchestra’ the film tends to project a patronising view of Balinese culture.

This clip starts approximately 7 minutes into the documentary.

This black-and-white clip shows a traditional Balinese dance, which the narrator calls ‘the dance of the eyes’, accompanied by a gamelan orchestra. The clip cuts between shots of women performing, showing the complex movements of the dancers, and the musicians. A rather stilted, formal narration describes the intricacies of the dance and the accompanying gamelan orchestra.
Narrator Through the rustle of tropic palms, distant strains of the gamelan come floating down the breeze, calling us to one of the most extraordinary scenes that Bali offers – the famous ‘dance of the eyes’. Balinese dancing girls are known the world over for their artistic interpretations. Rarely performed is this ‘dance of the eyes’ which we’re about to witness, with its unique musical accompaniment by the quaint native gamelan orchestra. In this dance, every movement conveys its symbolism. Every action has meaning, every turn of the eyes, its own significance.