Title :
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THE ANCIENT
GAMBUH DANCE
There broods over Balinese
dance an ancestral shade; every dance-form.. is ultimately derived from
Gamboeh; all dance technique originates in its movements, all scales and
melodies from its peculiar gamelan. One may indeed live a long time in
Bali without once encountering this ancient fossil of Balinese dance...
Yet there will come a moment, during a temple feast or cremation when one
will become aware of a strange wailing of flutes and rebab, the clash of
cymbals and clamor of strident voices rising above the gay contention of
several gamelans and the tinkle of the Pedanda's bell.
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FOREIGN ARTIST
IN BALI 1904 to 1967
Few western artists were
much interested with the exotic countries of the East and their strange
costumes and habits before the end of the 19th century. The general opinion
was that the sharp contrasts of tropical light were unsuitable for the
painterly arts. After Gauguin and the ascendance of modern art movement
all this changed. One can muse that if Gauguin, who used many compositions
taken from then recently published photos of the relief's of Borobudur,
had known of Bali is yet pristine culture, he would have come here instead
of Tahiti whose culture had virtually been destroyed by the time of his
arrival at the end of the 19th century.
