today we returned to ubud after a week in tejakula, a beautiful kind of retreat on the north coast of bali. the plan to have daily workshops with local master musicians & dancers was scuttled by a fast moving intestinal epidemic in the group. as usual i got off easy, merely one day of slight nausea & no appetite; others became severely dehydrated from, well you can imagine what from, and one guy even had to go to the hospital. still no idea what exactly caused it. perhaps some underboiled water in our hotel in denpasar right before we left, but some folks got sick one or two days later, so perhaps it was some kind of virulent virus. anyway if we had to all be so, er, intestinally productive, at least we were somewhere where productivity of other kinds was not expected of anyone.
wow have i written yet about the performances? i don't think so. (there was no internet within 50 miles of tejakula.) thursday 6/23 we had our debut and principal show of situbanda, and we really pulled together pretty well. the audience loved it (at least they laughed, sometimes inexplicably, a lot) & we've apparently gotten some really good press. it's a bit strange that we've been working for four months mostly for that one night's performance, though. i mean, we're doing two more minor shows here (ok one's in java, whither we depart on monday), and we've done a few presentations of parts of the show, but mostly this phase is over. we'll revamp it radically for performance in san francisco in august as well, look for my announcements if you're in the area.
the next night the gamelan had a performance. we were at the same time, same night as the battle of the bands between the two best baleganjur gamelans in the country, which we were sad about not only because it sucked away lots of our audience, but also because we'd obviously have loved to be there. anyway we did have a decent crowd (granted 1/3 of it was the actors & dancers from our show;) & played a good show. my favorite parts was marije's tapdance with our west african reyong piece. she was incredible & i'd never really gotten to see her do her thing.
leaving the shall we say basic accomodations in tejakula for our airconditioned, openair-bathroomed, recently mopped palaces in ubud, i am shocked almost as much as when in 1999 in the space of 24 hours i transferred from the turkish earthquake tent city of 2000 with no clean water or proper sanitation but plenty of rain, to a five star hotel in florence with my mommy & aunt lizzie. not nearly as stark a contrast, but jarring nonetheless.
unlike other travels of mine, almost all of my connection has been not with the people of the country, but with my companions. i'll be here two weeks after most of the troupe leaves, which i'm actually currently unexcited about, feeling a bit ready to move on, but i suspect when it happens i'll find myself in a completely different world & actually spending some real time with indonesians;)
ok i'm off to have a mercifully non-fried dinner devoid of tempeh, peanuts & noodles with a few friends. complete with ice cream for desert. hope y'all are all well.
love p