Lecturer
Balinese Dance & Puppetry, Balinese Music
widana@hawaii.edu
I Made Widana is a lecturer with the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where he teaches practical courses in Balinese music, dance, and theatre. Widana earned a BA in Balinese Traditional Music from Institut Seni Indonesia, Denpasar (Indonesian Arts Institute, Denpasar).
He is a professional musician, dancer, and composer. When in Bali, he teaches traditional gamelan music in various villages and at a number of formal music and dance studios. As a founding member and musician in the Bali-based Çudamani performing arts ensemble, Widana has participated in tours to the US, Japan, and Europe. In residence in Hawaiʻi since 2009, he is the Artistic Director of Gamelan Segara Madu, Gamelan Taksu Gitaning Shanti, and presents many community outreach programs under the auspices of the East-West Center Arts Program, the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA), and the UH-Manoa Outreach Statewide Cultural Extension Program (SCEP).
Widana’s expertise in traditional Balinese music and dance is coupled with extensive experience in innovative and collaborative artistic works. He wrote and performed original music for a unique puppet performance, Journey to the East: Ruminations on a Sixteenth-Century Chronicle, by Hourglass Theatre, that was premiered at Shangri La in Honolulu and toured to the East Coast. Widana has served as Musical Director for two UHM Kennedy Theatre Mainstage productions: Subali-Sugriwa: Battle of the Monkey Kings (2016) and The Last King of Bali (2020).