Abstract:

Writers and scholars have often interpreted the Balinese as struggling to exist in two worlds - the traditional and the modern. Many Balinese, however, tend to see themselves as attempting to negotiate foreign culture and to manage the far-reaching transformations that have taken place in their world. Moreover, Balinese conceptions and expressions of their contemporary world are not homogenous and artists have responded in a variety of ways. The case of Sanggar Bona Alit, a studio for the teaching and performance of music and dance founded by Alit Adi Putra - musician, composer, and painter - shows how creative productions may be shaped by processes of cultural negotiation that occur at the conceptual boundaries between the familiar and the foreign, the inside and outside, and the traditional and the modern.

Author: Manolete Mora