Denpasar, In the City

Kukuruyuk Studio Celebrates 24th Anniversary

A philosopher said that humans are playing creatures. Certainly, because no matter what its name and form, a game must be interesting, exciting, and release stress. However people also put a serious element into their games, including human values and education values such as honesty, togetherness, solidarity, discipline, morality, democracy and social values.

Previously, children were always cheerful, joyful, and happy in playing traditional games whether in the city or in the village. By agreement, they always find a safe and open place to play, like in the house yard, school park, jaba pura (outside temple yard), wantilan / bale banjar (village hall), garden, whether in the afternoon or on the night of the full moon. But now all of this is hard to find. These games were created collectively and handed down from generation to generation.
The possibility of the surface of many studios or group of children’s traditional game is maybe caused by the importance of the education values that exist inside that game. This signed the hot prospect for conservation and development of the traditional game in the future. One of these studios is Kukuruyuk Studio that is organized by Made Taro. “Through the traditional game, the children will gain a personality education, such as edification of honesty, discipline, and morals. By then, the children will recognize sincerity, law fidelity, social loyalty, and having a democratic character. For example: they could have an argument about who will lead the game, but finally they will agree and obey the choice,” explained Made Taro when interviewed at Taman Budaya (Cultural Park).
Furthermore, this former teacher of Senior High School (SMUN) 2 Denpasar, who received the Bali Award from the Governor of Bali and Adhikarya Award from IKAPI Jakarta, said the traditional game could also expand the responsibility in obeying agreements. The traditional game is really profitable and useful for children’s education, but some of the parents feel ashamed and not very proud if their children play this game. Parents choose simple and easy games for their children to play such as toy robots and cars that are practically sophisticated.
For example he said, “If a child is playing a computer game, he can enjoy the game alone, but while playing a traditional game, the children cannot play alone but he has to cooperate with others. The children’s game is useful to practice movement, the inner movement and not engineered movement. So, it will motivate the children to do some movements in playing this game, so that he will not be clumsy and shy in public”.
This game is not only just an activity of playing but contains a story that has the background of socio-cultural games and songs. This is a universal value that can be followed by several ethnic groups through an introduction process, understanding, then growing into respect. So there are two benefits from playing - planting cultural norms and building the nationality in Bhineka Tunggal Ika.
According to Made Taro, it is foreign influence that one needs to worry about. Surely, it is not the parents’, society’s or the government’s fault, but it is our fault, especially for those of us who underrate traditional games and overrate the modern sophisticated ones.
At Bali’s 25th Arts Festival, which coincides with the 24th anniversary of Kukuruyuk Studio, they will perform the “meturis-turisan” game. In this performance, it mainly presents the traditional purity, only it adds a new story that includes a tourist figure. The traditional stagings include “mekelik-kelikan” (the story of kelik bird), “kedis-kedisan” (bird’s agility in seeking a perched place), “mejangkrik-jangkrikan” (the story of a cricket in pitting on strength), “mesepit-sepitan” (taking the ball with sepit—a traditional kitchen tool), and “meperang-perangan” (pitting on cecimpedan—Balinese traditional poetry).
According to Made Taro, the idea of these games, which are supported by 50 players and 30 cheer-players, appears to represent the decline in tourism. Now, fewer tourists visit Bali and to express the grudges, the new game was created. The performance last Sunday (15/06) really entertained the audience. (BTN/015)