Painted Bride Art Center presents ÇUDAMANI, the 25-member gamelan music and dance ensemble from Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, November 3 at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM at the Painted Bride Art Center (230 Vine Street). Tickets at $30, $15 for Bride Members, are available at the Painted Bride Art Center box office Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM or on the website at www.paintedbride.org.

Çudamani, featured on the Bride's XL series which showcases extra-large ensembles, will perform Odalan Bali: An Offering of Music and Dance. Gamelan refers to a set of percussive gong-chime musical instruments of Indonesia, featuring metallophones, xylophones, drums, gongs and bamboo flutes. The gamelan set of instruments is built and tuned to stay together as a distinct entity so that sets of instruments are not interchangeable between set. The word "gamelan" comes from the Javanese word "gamel", meaning to strike or hammer. A living tradition in Bali, the gamelan is closely woven into the daily religious and community practices of life in a Balinese village.

An Odalan is the Balinese temple ceremony. Every Balinese belongs to a temple by virtue of descent or residence. Following the lunar calendar, every temple has an Odalan on its anniversary, which occurs every 210 days. There are over 20,000 temples in Bali.

Çudamani's Odalan Bali is an extraordinary synthesis of sound and motion that captures the exhilarating splendor and creative life force of the Balinese temple festival. Meticulously crafted, Odalan Bali is rich in visual imagery - with dancers in shimmering costumes, lay priests in luminous white, warriors adorned with radiant headdresses, a larger-than-life guardian spirit that twirls and dances - combined with dazzling polyrhythms that the musicians make on an array of bronze instruments against a backdrop of lushly-hued hand-crafted banners and flags. From the clamor of villagers working at dawn to the calm of prayer and worship, and from the meditative resonance of voice and flute to the virtuosic dances for which Bali is famous, this original evening-length work traces the life of a ceremony from the awakening of the ritual site, to purification, and finally to spiritual union.

"It is extremely rare for an Indonesian ensemble to tour a production of this scale, and Odalan Bali offers our audience a unique window into the spiritual and cultural source of Balinese performing arts," said Laurel Raczka, Executive Director at the Painted Bride Art Center. "Much like the Bride, this group sees themselves as a community of leaders who positively contribute to society with their classical Balinese music and dance."

The musicians of Çudamani, many of whom are also dancers, play on a hybrid gamelan orchestra "Semarandana" which was created in the 1980s. With seven tones rather than the usual five and a tuning system containing "extra" notes, this special gamelan allows great freedom and diversity in Çudamani's repertoire, with the numerous modes and tuning systems each having a distinct atmosphere, color and mood. This type of ensemble is still quite rare in Bali, and Çudamani is on the forefront of work in this style.

Painted Bride Art Center collaborates with emerging and established artists to create, produce and present innovative work that affirms the intrinsic value of all cultures and celebrates the transformative power of the arts. Through performances and exhibitions, education and outreach, the Bride creates a forum for engagement centered on contemporary social issues.