Shadows + Art = FUN at the NoHo Senior Arts Colony
Part of our job here at www.nohoartsdistrict.com is to feature unique classes, people, shows and events happening in our growing NoHo Arts District. Our job is fun. We also have a lot of interesting things happening. Our own NoHo Senior Arts Colony classes will begin free shadow art classes on Saturdays with a culmination performance.
Classes are FREE and open to everyone (ages 6 and up) and families are encouraged to attend as a team. They’ll have 10 classes and a culmination. There’s something for everyone: art, design, carving, writing, script writing, manipulating shadow puppets, acting, dialogue and more. What’s even better is that the Art & Craft of Shadow Theater Residency Performances / Classes / Materials are all FREE of charge.
WHERE: NoHo Senior Arts Colony
10747 Magnolia Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601
WHEN: January 17 through March 14
Saturdays 2-4PM
FREE culmination performance on Saturday, March 21 at 2PM
Join them for a reception, exhibition and performance accompanied by live music when the residency ends.
The NoHo Senior Arts Colony classes will be taught by MaRia Bodmann. Her specialty is shadow theater. As a shadow artist she tells stories, sings, plays gamelan music, makes shadow figures of all kinds and choreographs traditional, contemporary and experimental shadow performances. She is an artist, musician, performer and business manager. Maria Bodmann earned her BFA and MFA in Multidisciplinary Art and Music from California Institute of the Arts. She studied music at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, Germany, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Gamelan at the Indonesian Academy of Performing Arts (ASTI), and shadow theater in the village of Sukawati, Bali.
We asked MaRia to share some information on what shadow art is and her residency at the NoHo Senior Arts Colony in North Hollywood.
“Shadow art began in Asia over 1000 years ago. Stories are told on a back-lit screen with carved rawhide characters. The plays are accompanied by live music. Shadow art combines artistic disciplines:
• Fine Art – designing, carving, and painting characters.
• Story Telling and Creative Writing – shadow play always involves a story, one already written or something new.
• Theater – with script writing, dialogue, choreography, puppetry, special effects and acting.
• Shadow play is best when accompanied by some kind of music – live or recorded – the shadow artists and music interact.
• Sometimes characters dance and sing!
Shadow play is exciting– it’s very much like film or live animation. You can do things in shadow that can’t be done in real life: special effects, fantasy, and supernatural creatures. Time can be compressed or expanded; characters can shrink and grow.
The types of shadow art I perform are traditional Balinese style “Wayang Kulit” shadow play and contemporary productions. For more information about Indonesian shadow play (the inspiration for the upcoming residency), please visit: http://balibeyond.com/wayang.html.
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After studying traditional Balinese shadow art for two years in Bali under the auspices of a Fulbright grant, I performed and taught traditional, contemporary, as well as many new creation shadow plays and residencies. The upcoming residency is sponsored in part by a grant from the Department of Culture Affairs, City of Los Angeles, along with the generosity of Engaged and Bali & Beyond. Participants will learn all aspects involved in shadow art and work together as an ensemble to perform the group story that we will start writing this Saturday!”
MaRia Bodmann and Cliff DeArment direct Bali & Beyond, a performing arts company inspired by the cultures of Indonesia. Based in Los Angeles the ensemble performs and teaches locally and tours nationally and internationally, featuring traditional and creative gamelan music, shadow theater and educational presentations. For more information, visit http://balibeyond.com.
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