BALI QUEEN - An Exiled Queen’s Revenge

Sisters Grimm and James Cousins join forces to explore the Balinese philosophy of dualism through Bali’s legendary character of Rangda, the “demon queen” and present their interpretation of her back story as a betrayed woman who ultimately seeks her revenge on those who banished her, sending her into exile for being a witch.

 

Our protagonist, the exiled and now widowed Bali Queen, enters slowly with an offering. She kneels and lowers the pot of burning incense to the ground. She closes her eyes and begins to sing a haunting melody over a beautiful musical score combining rich melodies and harmonies inspired by the mystical sounds of the Gamalan. The piece ends at the height of rhythmic energy with Bali Queen raising a morbid army to rain down disease destruction and death on all those who betrayed her.

“We’ve thought about this a lot and we want to be really clear about the fact that this is our interpretation of the character. And we have built our own story around this character Rangda from their legend. We are hoping to bring a different light to his woman, within the context of this global meaning of witch for women, in our own way.”

“ONE OF THE UK’S MOST PROMISING CHOREOGRAPHIC TALENTS”  MATTHEW BOURNE

Staging BALI QUEEN

Sisters Grimm are proud to present YASMIN PRIYATMOKO-BOHN as the role of Bali Queen. Born in Bali, Yasmin left Indonesia when she was only 16 six years old to live in a dance conservatory outside of Los Angeles. After moving to Rotterdam to attend the Codarts University of Dance in 2013, she joined ŻfinMalta last year.

On Choreographer James Cousins: “ONE OF THE UK’S MOST PROMISING CHOREOGRAPHIC TALENTS”  MATTHEW BOURNE – “STRIKINGLY ORIGINAL” THE GUARDIAN.

Sisters Grimm would like to thank Balinese Cultural specialists Restu Kusumaningrum the Bali Purnati Foundation and I Wayan Dibia for their support.

A 30 minute narrative piece.

Choreography: James Cousins Music: Ella Spira & Naomi Hammerton. Costumes: Georg Meyer-Wiel

“STRIKINGLY ORIGINAL” THE GUARDIAN

BALI QUEEN Sound

The show features a newly-commissioned original score by composer Ella Spira & music collaborator Naomi Hammerton . Inspired by the mystical feeling of Bali and it’s sonic world, the score combines driving percussive instrumentation with lush choral harmonies and haunting lead vocals.