Dealing with the whole animal

“For me the most interesting thing about wayang is that it really gives you the whole picture. There may be some other art form that is more comprehensive, but I don’t think so. I feel that in other performing arts people touch only on the trunk or the tail of the elephant, but when I am doing wayang I am pushed into dealing with the whole animal.”

“What builds in me as I work with the wayang is a kind of awe that I had no inkling of when I first chose this topic. I suppose Shakespeare is held up within the Western canon, but his plays end. They do not have the same deeply embedded place within a larger philosophical, religious, and cultural framework.

The wayang never ends. It just goes deeper and deeper because there have been so many generations of puppet masters. Often when I am performing I feel that I am not the puppet master. I am the puppet being held by all the puppet masters of the past under the power of some kind of ancient force that is trying to awaken me.”

Kathy Foley, American dalang.

Rama & Rahwana fight from faith brandon on Vimeo.

Rahwana dance from faith brandon on Vimeo.