Playing a Small Crowd : Schools: Music on Tour performers bring real theater--with an international flavor--to elementary students. The result? A fifth-grader’s highest praise: ‘These guys are really neat.’

The audience filed into their seats as the Music Center musicians warmed up their instruments. A hushed chatter echoed through the room as the crowd engaged in traditional pre-performance mingling. But the audience for this matinee spurned cocktail dressand business suit attire in favor of Mickey Mouse T-shirts and tennis shoes.

The Music Center on Tour had come to the cafeteria of Farragut Elementary School in Culver City.

The program allows students to see a real theater matinee without making the trip downtown. Schools can “rent” the artists for $230 to $640 for a single performance. Sort of a pay-per-view for theater.

The artists include the Ballet Folclorico do Brasil, the Djimbe West African Dancers and Drummers, the L.A. Music Center Opera, and about 65 others who had to audition for a spot on the Music on Tour’s catalogue.

“The performers are artists who must be artistically sound, with superior talent,” said Joan Boyett, the executive director and vice president for education at the Music Center.

At Farragut, the performers were Udan Arum, a Balinese musical duo whose name means “sweetly scented rain.”

Between entrancing tunes, Maria Bodmann and her partner, Cliff DeArment, spun tales about the culture, climate and even animal life of Bali.

Bodmann and DeArment formed Udan Aram after “falling in love with the Balinese culture,” Bodmann said. The two lived in Bali from 1986 to 1988, while Bodmann was a Fulbright scholar and DeArment was part of a teacher exchange program. They have played extensively in Los Angeles and on a soundtrack for a National Geographic documentary on the Indonesian island.

At Farragut, they included students in their performance. Bodmann and DeArment wrapped fifth-grader Rory Mahoney in a scarlet sash, the religious garb of Balinese musicians, before giving the freckle-faced 10-year-old a crack at playing the xylophone-like instrument that is part of the gamelan, the word for an ensemble.

Rory crinkled his face as the sash was wrapped around his midsection.

Bodmann explained that “it’s disrespectful to play Balinese music without the proper clothing.”

Once he got over his shyness, Rory enjoyed himself and gave Udan Arum a fifth-grader’s highest praise. ‘These guys are really neat,” he said. “It’s interesting, the music they play; they’re really good.”

Other audience members expressed newfound interests as a result of what they had seen and heard.

“I know I want to travel--I got a guitar for Christmas and I want to play it everywhere, especially in Bali,” third-grader Jasmin Jordan said after her brief stint as a volunteer gamelan musician.

But Rory was a bit less enthusiastic after hearing about the insects and reptiles of the tropical island. “It sounds cool, except for those giant spiders they were talking about; I don’t want to go there because of those,” he said.

Boyett said Udan Arum was just one of 200 acts that tried to get on the tour calendar, auditioning in front of groups of children and professional evaluators this year.

“We look for three things: artistry, educational content and verbal rapport,” she said.

But the groups also represent a wide cultural variety. Although groups with cultural origins familiar to Angelenos, such as the Ballet Espanol de Los Angeles, have always been popular, it took a while for Udan Aram to catch on.

“We have lots of people from other countries come in--it’s really interesting,” said Stefanie Nieto, 10. “Before today, I never even knew a state--I mean a country--like Bali existed.”

The Music Center program was started as an experiment in 1981, with 55 appearances scheduled. Last year, the groups collectively did 10,600 performances, Boyett said.

The job is not an in-between for starving artists, she said. The artists are treated--and paid--like professionals, with the center picking up the tab for part of the performers’ costs. In 1991, the center contributed $1.2 million for artists’ fees.

The schools pay the rest of the fees with PTA or booster club funds or grants. Steve Martinez, principal of Farragut, said his school paid for the performers through a School Improvement Program grant.

Jamaal Carter, 10, thought the program was well worth the money. “I’m glad we have this. I go to the theater a lot with my parents and this is like that,” he said.

“Except I get to get out of class for this one.”