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THE DANCE THAT MAKES YOU VANISH: Cultural Reconstruction in Post-Genocide Indonesia. Difference Incorporated. By Rachmi Diyah Larasati. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. xxii, 196 pp. (B&W photos.) US$25.00, paper. ISBN 978-0-8166-7994-2.
This remarkable book attempts to show the ways in which the Indonesian nation-state, under President Suharto and his Reform-era successors, has attempted to appropriate and refashion both court and folk dances for their own purposes. These purposes included covering over both past artistic practices and the killings/imprisonment of their practitioners, taking control of a wide range of cultural practices, and using dance to help promote an image of national stability that assists in securing international tourism, aid and trade deals.
While I often found Rachmi Diyah Larasati's book to be too heavily laden with a theoretical jargon that was not always grounded by concrete examples, it would be hard to deny the deep intellectual quest and profound moral passion that undergird this frustrating and fascinating work. At its best, Larasati's work allows us to gain a fleeting glimpse of the spectral figures of those dance practitioners of the Jejer and Janger genres who have disappeared or been banned from performing since 1965. Another great virtue is the fact that it clarifies the ways in which the post-1965 Indonesian state has gone to great lengths to claim ownership over refashioned traditional dances, while at the same time controlling the practitioners of these dances through access to privileged travel for performance abroad and strict enforcement of civil servants' conformity to state norms.
The Dance That Makes...