In Visible Light

A work for shadow theater, dance, voice, and Balinese gamelan that paints a story of a mythic tyrant whose arrogance poisons the rivers of knowledge, arts and culture, casting the world into chaos. Saraswati, the goddess of arts, language and learning, fights a magnificent battle to restore balance. ShadowLight Director Larry Reed together with Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s Balinese guest artists-in-residence I Dewa Putu Berata and Emiko Saraswati Susilo lead 35 performers in a collaboration that is culturally specific yet globally resonant—a work that seeks a path to reconnect a fractured world.

In Visible Light weaves together elements from various forms and traditions. New works for music, dance, and song are intertwined with traditional forms, honoring the deeply Balinese tradition of innovation. A rarely performed section of the dance Legong Lasem appears alongside Rebong, a beloved instrumental for shadow puppetry, but here arranged for gong kebyar, flute and violin. Classical forms of poetry such as Semarandana and Ginanti have been integrated with new text that breathes the spirit of today, both sorrowful and joyful, with the masterful poetic forms of the ancestors. Classic forms such as geguntangan take on a new life as they accompany scenes created for a screen that is as innovative as it is beautiful, and the delicate balance between harmony and chaos is invoked in movement that spans the range of human emotion and experience.

Presented as part of San Francisco International Arts Festival 2017
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, June 2 - 3, 2017

Director: Larry Reed
Musical Director & Composer: I Dewa Putu Berata
Choreographer: Emiko Saraswati Susilo
Musicians & Dancers: Gamelan Sekar Jaya
Shadow Theater: ShadowLight (Caryl Kientz, Fred C. Riley III, I Made Moja) & Sekar Jaya