Embodied Communities: Dance Traditions and Change in Java by Felicia Hughes-Freeland (review)

Felicia Hughes-Freeland’s Embodied Communities: Dance Traditions and Change in Java is the kind of book that gets better the more often you read it and the more familiar you are with its subject. It is impossible to skim, being written with such density, thoroughness, and insight that it might overwhelm readers who have not yet embarked on an intellectual tour into Javanese culture, Indonesian history of the twentieth century, court dance traditions, or issues of embodiment in dance ethnology. Hughes-Freeland, who lived and studied in central Java for many years, is without a doubt immensely knowledgeable about all these aspects relating to the court dance tradition of Yogyakarta. Readers expecting information on the dance with regard to Yogya’s karawitan tradition will not be disappointed. Although musical aspects are not covered explicitly in the book—hence some main sources on the topic are missing from the references—an ethnomusicological study can still gain from this publication in terms of insights into the social, political, and cultural life of Java and ways in which the performing arts shape “culture” over time and at the same time are shaped by it.

In the introduction, the reader is informed about the author’s personal encounter with court dance traditions on Java, her fieldwork approach and key theories, earlier publications, and academic fields of study on which her work is based. Chapter 2 is a historical overview of court dance development under the reign of Hamengkubuwono VIII (1921–39), the time under Dutch colonial rule when, according to the author, important foundations for later developments in court dance were laid in close connection to the beginning nationalist movement.

Hughes-Freeland does not offer a simple description of changes in history. Instead, she creates a nicely woven text featuring quotations from primary and secondary sources, as well as interpretations and accounts from personal experience, complemented by data from the author’s main interlocutors and wonderfully spiced up with short anecdotes from the field that highlight her explanations and analyses. It is here that her approach is mirrored perfectly by the following sentence from the introduction: “My approach aims to resist ‘thick description’ in favor of a meta-interpretation which synthesizes concepts used by particular individuals who themselves enact a relationship between what they say and the cultural references at their disposal” (22). By telling different stories about the same event or instance, based on either different publications or personal encounters, with sensitive source criticism, never judgmental, thereby making such stories appear to be complementary instead of contradictory, she manages to inform the reader in a most comprehensive way.

Hughes-Freeland convincingly shows how tightly connected politics in late and postcolonial Java were to the development and preservation of court dances at a time when the detaching of the court dance repertoire from court patronage took place. According to her, the reason for this is likely to be found in early nationalist concepts as promoted by the Tamansiswa educational system, which focused on strengthening the would-be members of an Indonesian nation by educating them in local culture, language, and belief systems (46). Of course, this transition toward institutionalization changed the way dancing is taught and transmitted dramatically, a fact that Hughes-Freeland turns to in more detail in the third chapter, where she elaborates on the incorporation of court dance into the curriculum of institutions in higher education.

Chapter 3 generally focuses on the transition time from Dutch colony to nation- state under the rule of Sukarno (1945–65), extending into Suharto’s New Order (1966–98). These times with dramatic political and social changes and instability all fell under the reign of Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX. Hughes-Freeland describes how court dance repertoire turned into a national “classical” dance, for instance, through its use as a showpiece for nation- related occasions (54...