I had never seen Indonesian dance before, aside from a stylized ballet presentation of a Balinese princess in a San Francisco production of Cinderella, and only ever heard a gamelan in a Cirque du Soleil show, so I was very excited about seeing a new and different thing presented in a traditional cultural context.
Gamelans are huge. I would not be terribly interested in being a player (any one part of it seems likely to become mindnumbingly tedious, but altogether it is fascinating both as a spectacle and as an amalgamation of simple melodies and rhythms into one oddly peaceful and soothing experience.
The dancers left me in a cloud of glitter envy. Some of them had bedazzled peacock headdresses. I wanted them. Beyond that, I am in awe of their thighs and fingers. Balinese dancer is performed with deep knee bends, almost constant head slides and tilts, and finger things I can't even begin to describe. Fortunately, there is always youtube. The dancers showed us a traditional greeting dance that involved strewing flowers, a warrior dance with much manly posturing, and one dance in which the dancer brought various audience members to the stage to dance with her. Always a lovely thing to do. Chihaya tried her kuchi pudi hands at it and did a quite passable imitation.
After the show, the audience was invited to talk to the performers and try their hands at playing the various pieces of the gamelan, which was delightful. Apparently you have to mute everything with your hands right after you play it because it resonates so much that the sound rapidly becomes muddy.
It was a delightful evening. This is why going places to recycle is worth the effort.
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