At the 2004 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival auditions at McKenna Theater on the campus of San Francisco State University, Harsanari performed two pieces from the classical Sundanese repertoire. Over 120 groups and soloists from the San Francisco Bay Area performed on the McKenna Theater stage over a two-weekend period in January 2004.

The women performed Kandagan, which is an example of dance from the first generation of women's classical style. It comes from a popular folktale, Damarwulan, and depicts a princess who disguises herself as a warrior and sets out in search of her lover after he was reported to have been killed in battle. In her search, she discovers that he is in fact still alive.

Gawil, performed by the men, is the second of four kursus dances, developed in the 1920s by the male aristocracy as a means to express national identity under colonial Dutch rule and to standardize the traditional classical and folk movements of Sundanese dance. It is the second most refined, or noble, of the four kursus dances.

Alice, our designated make-up artist, fixes Carol's makeup. "You need more blue!", says she.

Ironing is our favorate behind-the-scenes activity.