One of the most renowned music and dance companies from Buleleng, ‘Sanggar Seni Santhi Budaya’ travelled to China in October to perform at the ‘The 13^th China Shanghai International Arts Festival’. This festival has been successfully organized for twelve years in a row and is a colorful collection of all forms of domestic and foreign arts, such as music, dance, drama, etc. And it is not the least performing there. Conductors Zubin Mehta and Christopher Eschenbach , tenors Placido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli, singers Mariah Carey and Beyonce Knowles, the flute soloist James Galway and cellists Mischa Maisky as well as the dancers Aida Gomez and Sara Baras are a few of the names who have performed on the stages of the Shanghai arts festival over the years and show the excellent company Sanggar Seni Santhi Budaya is in. Santhi Budaya has 248 dancers and the gamelan group counts 22 men.

The group was set up by Gus Eka, as he is fondly named by his students and followers, who started the dance company in 2005 and has since been growing as a name, first nationally and now also internationally. In 2008 we performed in Andong (South Korea), in 2010 in Bangkok and this month they we will be travelling to China to perform at the‘13^th China Shanghai International Arts Festival’.”

The festival boasts open-minded vision and is growing in influence on both domestic and overseas cultural stages. It will give the dance group a chance to perform for an international audience and share with them the performing arts of our country. “Sharing culture leads to better understanding and can strengthen relationships between people and nations” said the founder of the group on the night before their departure to China. Better understanding through cultural exchange programs is one of the focus points of Rotary because it creates goodwill and peace in the world. The Rotary Club of Bali Lovina was was very happy to be able to support ‘Sanggar Seni Santhi Budaya’ with a donation for this cultural exchange trip.