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Dressing the dancers
At work: Sudira employs six local residents, including this seamstress, in his costume making studio
At work: Sudira employs six local residents, including this seamstress, in his costume making studio.
The village of Sukawati in Gianyar has held fast to its arts and traditions that date back centuries.
Where other communities look to make souvenirs of their traditional arts and crafts; in Sukawati, people continue to create items needed for performances or temple ceremonies.
This has allowed their artistic traditions to flourish free of the economic vagaries of tourism.
Tucked along streets behind the village market are dozens of home industries making the wayang dolls needed in the puppet performances often held after teeth-filing ceremonies.
Another street is home to the barong makers ' the great masked beasts that dance the streets during Galungan and Kuningan. On another lies the kiosks of those who make the masks and headwear of dances such as the Legong.
Nestled down one of these lanes is the home of Balinese dance costume maker Made Sudira, who, like his ancestors, stitches pompoms to gold panels used in the Baris dance, prepares the 10-meter-long sabuk, or belts, that wrap the torsos of women dancers and the wrist and calf ornaments used by the men.
He says that his business is doing well: The costume tailor has a staff of six, all drawn from the neighborhood.
'I learned to make the costumes from my dad. It is my family warisan [heritage]. I started helping out when I was still in junior high, but by the time I got married I gave up the work and moved to Jimbaran,' says Made, surrounded by the gold leafed fabrics he screen prints at his home.
In the early years of his apprenticeship, costumes were often made of nylon, he says. 'Very hot and very cheap.'
A few good years on the Jimbaran tourist trail selling souvenirs proved to be the right move for Made ' until the first Bali bombing in 2002.
'When the bombing happened I went bankrupt, like so many others. I moved back home to Sukawati,' he says. 'I had the feeling that it was my fate to make dance costumes ' that I was in some way not allowed to let this tradition die out within my own family.'
'In Jimbaran, I had a home, was building a good life, but maybe because of God I was sent home to make these costumes and maintain our traditions into the future,' says the 50-year-old who made a host of attempts to forge a new life for himself away from his home village.
'Three times I went and three times I came home bankrupt. I got the message. I am a Sukawati costume maker.' Made laughs.
He points out the design influences on Balinese costumes with an easy familiarity, noting one named Kutah Mesir after the Indonesian word for Egypt. 'We use this on the edges of the galang kana worn on the wrist. And this is what we call the Patra design, which came from The Netherlands,' Made says of the fleur-de-lis that dominates the gold leaf pattern on the costume fabric.
'We got that design from the Dutch. The other influence is Chinese. As to the shape of the costumes and their history, I have no idea. These are sacred costumes ' that's all I know. I haven't met anyone who has tried to discover the first reasons behind the costumes. They have just always been here,' says Made.
He does point out that printing gold leaf on the costumes has special significance. 'In Bali, gold is the most important metal. Next to gold is silver. These dances have a great relationship to our culture and our traditions,' he says of performances integral to Balinese Hindu religious ceremonies and occasions such as cremations and weddings.
For Blahbatu dancer and teacher Ketut Pendesa, the costumes he wears are an expression of cultural history. 'Balinese dance is of the sacred. I feel there is some influence in costume from the [Javanese] Majapahit Kingdom, but there was also a great appreciation for dance from all the Balinese kingdoms of the past,' said Ketut over the telephone.
While costumes are essentially body coverings for the dancers, according to Ketut, support from the early kingdoms turned the garments into the exotic and sometimes curious costumes seen today.
'Dance was, in the very beginning, not from the royal houses, but from the people themselves,' Ketut says. 'In time, kingdoms gave recognition to the dance forms. From the 1900s onwards, dance improved and grew rapidly through that royal support.'
The island's many kings also supported talented dancers, who were thus able to dedicate their lives to their art, giving birth to the diversity of Balinese dance today.
'An example of this royal backing is the Legong, now an iconic dance here. Legong is the visual interpretation of a dream, dreamt by a former Balinese king. We see in this example both costume development and the evolution of dance in Bali.'
For costume craftsman Made Sudira of Sukawati, the history of costume is not too important. Maintaining a family tradition laid down generations ago is.
' Photos by J.B. Djwan
