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About twenty-five years ago many traditional Balinese performing arts that had been considered "male-only" began to be performed by women. These arts included dancing, music, masked drama, and shadow puppetry. Wayang kulit, or shadow puppetry, is one of the most important performance genres in Bali because of its status as ritual and entertainment. This paper examines two of the earliest women puppeteers, or dalangs, within the context of the society and politics, especially the state-sponsored arts academies, surrounding their work in wayang kulit. Even though these women were joined by other female students and performers, the number of women dalangs remains slight and few are choosing this path of performance today.
Jennifer Goodlander is an assistant professor of theatre at the University of Kentucky. She completed her PhD in interdisciplinary arts, focusing on theatre and performance studies, at Ohio University in 2010. She has an MFA in Asian performance and directing from the University of Hawai'i. She has trained as a Balinese dalang with I Wayang Tunjung and performs puppets and directs intercultural theatre nationally and internationally.
Wayang kulit,1 or shadow puppetry, is important in Bali because it connects a mythic past to the present through public ritual performance. Flat, two-dimensional puppets made out of leather are manipulated against a screen by a single puppeteer to tell stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana or other Balinese myths and histories. These performances are generally given as an integral part of a ceremony or ritual, but wayang kulit is also a form of entertainment for the Balinese. The dalang, or puppeteer, is the central figure in this performance genre and is revered in Balinese society2 as a teacher and spiritual leader. For example, a dalang can make holy water, a necessary part of Balinese religious practices, in a special ceremony that is part of a performance. The dalang controls all aspects of a wayang kulit performance as playwright, actor, director, orchestra conductor, musician, singer, producer, and priest. He needs to be an expert in Balinese philosophy, religion, and myth, as well as a talented storyteller and comedian. The dalang's skill as a performer, together with his knowledge and perceived wisdom, make him one of the most respected members of his community.3
Until recently, the dalang has...