In a departure from the composed and choreographed nature of many Western Classical styles of music and dance, students at Swarthmore will get a taste for the improvisatory art of traditional Indonesian dance when Didik Nini Thowok comes to campus on Tuesday, March 6. Didik Nini Thowok is a traditional cross-gender dancer from Java, Indonesia who performs in a variety of dance traditions, including topeng, Sundanese, Cirebon, Balinese, and Central Javanese.

Professor Tom Whitman of the Music and Dance Department is excited for Didik Nini Thowok to work with the Swarthmore Gamelan ensemble, a group of dancers and percussive and wind musicians who practice this classical music and dance form from Bali, Indonesia, as part of the lecture. Professor Whitman is hopeful that this event will expose the Gamelan ensemble to the improvisatory art that Didik Nini Thowok can offer.

“We’re not able to do a lot of dances that are improvisatory in nature. The dances that we do are always choreographed dances. Having Didik Nini Thowok here is an opportunity for us to work with a very high-level Indonesian dancer and to give my students and the audience a sense of what improvisation is all about. I think it’ll be a good learning experience for me and for my students in the Gamelan and I hope the audience will find it interesting too.”

Along with the workshop with the Gamelan ensemble, the event will include a lecture hosted by Didik Nini Thowok, co-sponsored by the Music and Dance Department, Asian Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. Professor Whitman believes that Didik Nini Thowok’s visit to campus will resonate with many Swarthmore students, not just as dancers or musicians, but also as individuals seeking identities within a shifting political and cultural climate. As Professor Whitman pointed out, and as Didik Nini Thowok mentioned in his 2011 TEDx Talk, Indonesia’s currently pluralistic government does not fully support the kind of message that Didik Nini Thowok delivers through cross-gender performance. The courage it takes for Didik Nini Thowok to publicly cross-dress is something Professor Whitman is certain Swarthmore students will appreciate and relate to.

“This is an artist who has grappled with issues of identity and what it means to be an artist in a very pluralistic setting that will speak to a lot of Swarthmore students. Just this notion of how one forges an identity and how one reconciles one’s own inner direction as an artist with a great tradition, I think is something all artists struggle with in a lot of ways, and I think it’s relevant.”

In his TEDx Talk, Didik Nini Thowok identifies with the struggles he has faced as a Chinese descendant in Indonesia and a man playing the role of a woman in his cross-gender performances, saying: “Since I was little, I’ve always experienced what it felt like to be a minority.”

But despite the discrimination as a result of the political situation in Indonesia, Didik Nini Thowok continues to deliver messages of love and acceptance across the globe.

Didik Nini Thowok’s lecture and demonstration is on Tuesday, March 6th at 4:30 PM in Lang Music Concert Hall. This event will be free and open to the public.

Marion Kudla ’19