One of the most exciting things at the art center is the exuberant group of kids who attend our dance classes and who make up our youth performing groups. Because of the number of students and the different levels of skill, we have three distinct performing groups: the youngest and newest is Ulupi, the students with more experience, mostly in elementary school are the Larasati group, and the oldest group with students in Middle school and High School is the Sri Kandi performing troup. These students all willingly practice outside in the rain when they have to, and even with school the next day they often stay up watching performances with the older members of the troupe. They have created a number of their own mask dance dramas such as The Braggart Turtle, based on pictographs found on our neighborhood temple, Jago Temple, and Sayembara Sada Lanang, based on traditional masked dance. Over the past 3 years these young students have been learning to play the gamelan in addition to their dance classes. The combined groups currently consist of about 100 kids from around Malang. The Javanese believe that a dancer who understands gendhing, Javanese music, will improve exponentially to the one who has never studied the music. We have made a number of recordings of the childrens' groups including a video cd of the 1 hour wayang kulit performance of Condro and her friends.

Please support the childrens group - they especially deserve our attention because they are the future of the arts!