Music education students travel to Bali
In addition to learning to play gamelan music, those on the trip were also able to watch and perform traditional Balinese dances. (Photo Courtesy of Lana McDowell)
By Brendan Raleigh, Web Editor
Twelve students of Gettysburg College spent three weeks of the past summer in the Indonesian province of Bali as part of Professor Brent Talbot’s EDUC 298 course, immersing themselves in the Balinese culture and daily life. In addition to learning about Balinese society, students were also tasked with performing a number of songs in the Balinese musical ensemble called the gamelan and learning a traditional Balinese dance under the tutelage of Gettysburg alumnus Wayan Rachman and his wife Ketut.
From June 26 to July 1 8, those on the trip stayed at a hotel in the Balinese capital o f Denpasar, as well as Flower Mountain in Ubud and a village in Banjar Wani. While the focus of the course was on musical performance, the distinctions between Balinese and Western culture were also a source of education and enculturation to the participating students.
“One interesting thing about Balinese culture was the way that Balinese people around the hotel would always say ‘hello’ and make eye contact with me,” says Sophomore Lana McDowell, who joined the abroad trip over the summer. “After a while it just became second nature to look them in the eye and say ‘hi’ and be friendly instead of looking away from them like we do here.”
For Gettysburg Junior Jane Best, however, the similarities between the two cultures were more striking than the differences.
“[We were] literally on the other side of the world, [so] many things were drastically different, but many aspects of our cultures were very much alike,” observes Best. “It was a first-hand reminder of the humanity in us all; every person has their own unique culture, shaped by their own experiences- but beneath it all we are all human and we are all alike.”
In the province’s capital, the students’ first experience was the five-day-long Bali Arts Festival, which encompassed a number of musical and theatrical performances. They were also allowed to barter w ith the local merchants, purchasing coffee, clothing and even Balinese topengs, which are masks worn by dancers as they depict traditional f bles and myths .
While at Flower Mountain, a puppet show visited the Gettysburg students before they were able to venture into the island’s tropical rainforest t o observe the province’s lush flora and fauna. In Banjar Wani, their final destination for the trip, the students performed a number of gamelan songs and presented the dance before a live audience. Through the course of the three-week-long class, those on the trip were also able t o attend a cremation ceremony, a wedding, a temple ceremony and numerous additional musical performances.
Talbot, the coordinator o f music education at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music, had held gamelan classes throughout the previous school year, allowing the students to try one of the many instruments present in the ensemble, such as the ketuk or the kebyar.
