Clowning Across Cultures: Indonesia

Clowning Across Cultures – Bali, Indonesia
Bondres Mask Carving & Clown Research | January 2025

After years of dreaming and planning, this project is officially underway! In January 2025, I traveled to Bali to begin the first phase of Clowning Across Cultures, a three-part global research project exploring non-Western clowning traditions.
Through a faculty research grant from Vassar College, I began studying Bondres—the sacred clown characters of Balinese ceremony. I collaborated with master performer and mask-maker Nyoman Setiawan (@fusion_mask), learning the art of mask carving, observing Bondres performances during ceremonies, and interviewing Nyoman about the cultural role of clowns in Balinese society.
Bondres clowns offer social critique, comic relief, and spiritual insight—building community and reflecting cultural values through humor. This phase of the project deepens my understanding of clowning beyond Western forms, expanding my perspective as a teacher and performer of physical theatre and clown.
Future phases of Clowning Across Cultures will focus on the Atsara clowns of Bhutan and Sahwira in Zimbabwe. This global exploration investigates clowning’s universal role in community cohesion, healing, and reflection, and aims to foster deeper cross-cultural dialogue and understanding through the lens of humor and embodied performance.