Garrett Kam, an expert in the artistic traditions of Java and Bali, will demonstrate a variety of classical Javanese dance styles at the East Hawai’i Cultural Center’s Bob Brown Gamelan Studio tonight at 5pm. The dances will include masked dancing, fight scenes, and monkey dancing from the Javanese interpretation of the Hindu epic Ramayana. In addition to dancing, Garrett will share insights with the audience about the context and meaning of each of the dance styles presented.

A long-time resident of Indonesia, Garrett was born in Honolulu and first studied Javanese dance in 1975 at University of Hawai’i-Manoa. He began studying with court dance masters in the royal city of Yogyakarta in Central Java in 1979, and has a long history of performing at the palace, where he is currently the only male foreigner allowed to do so.

Garrett has been living in Bali since 1987, when he was awarded a Fulbright grant for the study of Balinese ritual. In 1990 he became the only non-Balinese allowed to become a ritual assistance at one of the island’s most important temples. Garrett has choreographed many original works, in particular his Oki-Jawa fusion series that combines Okinawan and Javanese dances.

Aside from his dancing expertise, Garrett specializes in the increasingly rare Balinese art of plaiting figures from coconut leaves for offerings. His new two-volume illustrated book, Mads Lange: the Bali Trader and Peacemaker and His Forgotten Treasures, about a Danish merchant who settled in Bali in the 19th century, has just been published by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Hawai’i.

For more information, visit ehcc.org or call 961-5711.

Photo credit: East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center