Gamelan Dharma Swara perform at Stone Circle Theatre, Oct. 24th & 25th

Over three decades, NYC’s Gamelan Dharma Swara (DS) has built a reputation as one of the country’s most accomplished and groundbreaking ensembles—performing a diverse and innovative repertoire of both classical Balinese and contemporary music and dance. Dharma Swara’s 2025/2026 Fall/Winter season will feature two preview premieres of ambitious new works as they ramp up in preparation for a tour in Bali in summer 2026.  The ensemble will also host its first ever public Open House.

On Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25 at its home venue Stone Circle Theatre, Dharma Swara will premiere Nor’easter, a new work by American composer and Jerome Fund awardee Joel Mellin that features original dance choreography by Ilona Bito and Ndaru Kartikaningsih. The piece is inspired by the awe and wonder embodied by a child immersed in the experience of a uniquely powerful—and American—storm.  This production will employ cutting-edge depth-sensing camera technology to evoke a full scale shadow screen.

Stone Circle Theatre is located at 59-14 70th Ave., Ridgewood, Queens, 11385. Shows start @ 7pm. Advance tickets are $25, $30 at the door. Tickets and more info are here.

The program will be opened by a shadow play performed by Foreshadow, a Brooklyn-based theatre group led by Gaby Febland and Rosalind Lilly. With backgrounds in puppetry, acting, playwriting, illustration, and education, Foreshadow will join GDS in an interpretation of the traditional Balinese artform of shadow puppet storytelling.

For this contemporary presentation, the play will adapt the Hindu myth of Kala Rahu, a key figure in the Mahabharata whose cosmic import has inspired Dharma Swara’s insignia. This epic tale unites demons and gods in a cosmic tug-of-war to “churn the nectar” of immortality from the depths of the ocean. Through projector shadow puppetry and shadow mask, Foreshadow frames this myth as a bedtime story passed from grandmother to grandchild in a land of present-day unrest.

Each of the evening’s performances will otherwise have slightly differing programs of music and dance. 

Gamelan Dharma Swara and Foreshadow’s artistic partnership will extend into 2026, where both ensembles will continue to develop the shadow production together—including its presentation with live gamelan music—and have committed to bringing this program on tour to international audiences at the annual Balinese Arts Festival in Denpasar, Bali, during summer 2026.

For updated information on the 2025-2026 season, visit dharmaswara.org.