Dancing like a village priest

Check out my mask - looks freaky, doesn't it?


Anywho, this is me and fellow dancer Casey Lee after performing at the "Cafe 360o", a composition recital concept held on campus. The concept itself was simple: an audience would gather in the center of the playing arena while musicians and other acts would take place around them. Casey and I, along with some members of the UCSB Javanese gamelan ensemble, participated in one of the acts. This particular act had a story which illustrated the importance of cooperation: sayuk rukun, tandhang gawe, sing sayuk sing rukun, all that jazz. I played an extremely ugly and foolish temple priest, while Casey played a tree spirit who was toying with the priest ,who had the duty of lighting an important lantern before sundown. (She actually harnessed herself to get down the tree.) Got the story? Good.

The mask I used is known as cungih, which refers to a harelip, sometimes with "demon teeth" - teeth which appear where they shouldn't. Man, if I saw this mask as a kid, I'd freak out and run away from the scene as quickly as possible. I didn't like clowns in general when I was young - their garish and pallid makeup and screwy laughing manner reminded me of corpses with a sadistic sense of humor. Now I find it ironic that I play not one, but several clowns in my topeng (masked dance) performances.