arts

• Peking opera


  A form of Chinese opera which combines music, vocal performance, dance and acrobatics
• Roles and characters in Peking opera

  • Sheng - Main male role, usually a warrior or handsome man
  • Xiaosheng - Actors involved with beautiful women, handsome and young
  • Wusheng - Martial character, highly trained in acrobatics
  • Laosheng - Dignified older role, gentle and cultivated
  • Dan - Any female role
  • Laodan - Old woman
  • Wudan - Martial woman
  • Daomadan - Young female warriors
  • Qingyi - Virtuous and elite women
  • Huadan - Vivacious and unmarried women
  • Jing - Painted face male in primary or secondary roles
  • Chou - Male clown role, usually in secondary roles
• Main skills of Peking opera performers

  • Song
  • Speech
  • Dance-acting
  • Combat - acrobatics and fighting
• Aesthetic aims and principles of movement in Peking opera

  • The highest aim is to put beauty into every motion
  • Walking in large circle symbolizes travelling a long distance
  • Straightening costume and headdress symbolizes an important character is about to speak
  • Pantomimic is the opening and closing of doors and mounting
• Shoujiu


  Embroidered curtain that divides the Peking opera stage into two parts
• Xingtou


  Popularly known as Xifu, the costume in Peking opera
• Peking opera utilizes very few props
• Kabuki


  A form of traditional Japanese drama with highly stylized song, mime, and dance
• Kabuki is performed only by male actors
• Kabuki


  "ka" - song, "bu" - dance, "ki" - art or skill
• Kabuki


  Derives from the verb kabuku, meaning "to lean" or "to be out of the ordinary"
• Kabuki stage features


  • Hanamichi - flower path, walkway which extends into the audience
  • Kogakudo - Kabuki theatre with stages both in front and along the sides
  • Mawaro butal - Interior of the theatre contains a revolving stage
  • Suppon - Platform that rises from below the stage
  • Hanamicho - Walkway that cuts through the audience seating area
• Main categories of Kabuki plays

  • Jidaimono - Historical or pre-Sengoku period stories
  • Sewamono - Domestic or post-Sengoku stories, focused on commoners and themes of family drama and romance
  • Shosagoto - Dance pieces
• Mie

  The actor holds a picturesque pose to establish his character and his house yago
• Kesho


  Mie's father
• Categories of Kabuki actors

  • Onna-gata - female roles
  • Aragoto - male roles
• Kabuki make-up


  • Actors paint their faces and necks white adding stylized lines in red, black and blue
  • Red and blue are aragoto roles
  • Onna-gata have very little paint
  • Oshiroi - rice powder used for skin whitening
  • Kumadori - enhances or exaggerates facial lines to produce dramatic animal or supernatural character
• Kabuki props


  • Flowing water - represented by fluttering rolls or linen or creatures like insects and foxes
  • Fans - symbolize wind, a sword, tobacco pipe, waves or food
• Kabuki costume


  • Kimono and obi worn by female characters
  • Hakuma trousers worn by characters of both sexes
  • Costume changing is considered as an art
• Kabuki wigs

  Made by human hair, horse hair, bear fur, or yak-tail hair imported from Tibet
• Wayang Kulit

  Performances accompanied by Gamelan orchestra in Java and by Gender Wayang in Bali
• Hindu epics used in Wayang Kulit

  • Ramayana
  • Mahabharata
  • Serat Menak
• Elements of Wayang Kulit performance

  • Puppeteer - Dhalang (Java) or Dalang (Bali)
  • Cempala - Hammer used by the dhalang to knock on the puppet box
  • Kepyak - Metal plates that the dhalang hits with his foot
  • Gamelan - Traditional Indonesian orchestra
  • Blencong - Light source
  • Pesindhen and Penggeron - Pesindhen - female singers, Penggerong - male chorus
  • Gawang and Kelir - A screen frame and screen, the main focus of the performance
  • Gedebog - Banana logs
  • Kothak - Puppet box