Queers of Java

Acclaimed Indonesian dancer Rianto sets free the cross-gender Lengger from the dichotomies that society has constructed to symbolise nature – male or female, day or night, happiness or sadness. In this unlimited world, no one asks if Lengger should be only danced by women, as they currently do in Indonesian society where Lengger is seen as mere entertainment. Instead, the lengger body is inseparable from the concept of indang, a spiritual dimension that is neither male nor female. Rianto will attempt to reclaim the lengger body that has undergone the long journey from the spiritual, to the material and through to the digital by placing the body once again at the epicentre.

Unlimited is a ritual to dispel dichotomies. What is traditional and what is contemporary become indistinguishable. New possibilities for the unlimited lengger body are imagined using movement-tracking and 3-D projection mapping technologies, collapsing division between sound and movement, real and unreal, analog and digital. Rianto’s body becomes a topology through which the Lengger becomes inverted, stretched, deformed, limitless.

Creative Concept: Rianto & Monica Lim
Choreographer& Performer: Rianto
Dramaturg: Carol Brown
Performers: Rianto, Tamarra, Sigit Kurniawan & Suratno
Interactive Sound & Visual Design: Patrick Hartono & Monica Lim
Lighting Design: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
Costume Design: Tamarra