Chant, Stomps, and Beatboxing: The International Body Music Festival Gives Musicians, Dancers, and Cultural Explorers a Rare Chance to Explore Balinese Culture and Body Music from the Inside

Bali’s Kecak (KEH-chak) has captured Western dance and filmmakers’ imaginations for a century. With gripping coordination of movement and sound, it draws on trance dance and Hindu epics, elevating and wildly entertaining by turns.

Body musician Keith Terry is no exception: “I’ve been collaborating with Balinese artists for more than three decades, and have always been particularly drawn to their Body Music style, Kecak. The interlocking vocal patterns, coupled with synchronized movement, story, humor, plus the incorporation of new ideas, specifically my own Body Music style, into the genre, has been a thrilling, ongoing intercultural collaboration.”

Now, cultural explorers will get a rare opportunity to live and breathe the art form in its place of origin, as the 7th International Body Music Festival (IBMF) heads to Bali, Indonesia. For 9 days (July 3-12, 2015), participants will stay at the Suly Resort in Ubud, travel to villages, see exceptional concerts, participate in workshops led by local kecak performers and International Body Music artists, as well as e  njoy traditional cuisine, study gamelan, tour cultural hotspots, and savor the beaches and spas.

“If you’re curious about Balinese culture, if you’re drawn to the music and dance, there is no better opportunity to experience it from the inside out than this edition of the International Body Music Festival,” explains Terry, the festival’s founder and artistic driving force. “The community celebrates the music and dance coming solely from the instrument we all share. It transcends cultural boundaries and provides in-roads to cross-cultural experience. This particular IBMF will give participants the opportunity to delve deep into a rich local cultural experience, unlike any other Bali vacation.”

Confirmed teachers/performers (more announced weekly):

Jep Melendez (SPAIN)
KoBaGi (BALI)
Molodi (USA)
Theatre A Tempo (CANADA)
Tupac Mantilla (COLOMBIA)
Yolanda Gonzalez Sobrado (SPAIN)

Bourask (CANADA)
Corposonic (USA)
Barbatuques (BRAZIL)
Pedro Consorte (BRAZIL)
Cambuyón (SPAIN)
Cudamani (BALI)
I Wayan Dibia (BALI)

For more information and to reserve your Seat on the IBMF Bus:
www.internationalbodymusicfestival.com

The International Body Music Festival has become the meeting ground for the various styles of global Body Music. Since 2008, the IBMF has traveled the world, from Brazil to Turkey to Italy, though every other year it returns to its home base of San Francisco.

Music you can see and dance you can hear, the Festival is a moving hub for performers who engage with humanity’s first instrument: the body itself. The shushing of palms, the snapping of fingers, the stomping of feet, and the seemingly infinite potential of the throat and mouth have inspired people worldwide to create moving music, audible dance. Tap, stepping, hambone, flamenco, beatbox, every style that forefronts the sounds of bodies in motion. It’s the oldest music on the planet, and it’s brand new.

The 7th IBMF Bali will be a Body Music adventure like no other. In addition to concerts, workshops, cultural collaborations, after parties, the 7th IBMF Bali will culminate in a Colossal Kecak, featuring 400 Balinese artists. A seat on the IBMF Bus grants participants full access to all events, plus resort lodging, ground transportation and meals. Immediately following the Festival on Bali, is the July 15 holiday of Galungan, when the entire island is festooned with bamboo ornaments, mythical lions dance in the streets, and people are dressed in their finest.

A featured performance throughout the 7th IBMF Bali will be the final Body Tjak Project, since 1980 an intercultural collaboration between Indonesians and North and South Americans that has won awards in both regions. This current collaboration, which premiered at the 6th IBMF San Francisco, features members of Bali’s Cudamani, Oakland, CA’s Corposonic, and Brazil’s Barbatuques, bringing full circle Terry’s lifetime of Body Music inquiry. Body Tjak has always included a mash up of Terry’s Body Music and Balinese Kecak, artistic ideas that have become integral to new choreography in contemporary Indonesian companies.

“Every year the IBMF community grows, and every year we get feedback from audience and artists alike how special the gathering is,” Terry reflects. “We all have the same body yet how we make music/dance with its sonic capabilities really varies form culture to culture. Still, the essence, the pulse, the sincerity of the presentation bring the audience close to something familiar, something hugely powerful.”