The Dance That Makes You Vanish: Cultural Reconstruction in Post-Genocide Indonesia

Acknowledgments

ix This book has been a long time in coming and would not have been possible without the support of the community of Indonesian scholars and activists, feminist scholars, and former political prisoners in Indonesia: many invisible bodies—in particular, members of the women’s movement in Indonesia—who have been forgotten or dishonored, or whose bodies disappeared into mass graves. To the former political prisoners arrested during and after 1965, for their support, friendship, and generosity in sharing their experiences, I am profoundly indebted. I also thank the many children of those who disappeared in 1965 and the years that followed, whose longing for a real “home,” not unlike my own, has inspired the possibility of remembering. In this book, I trace how the female dancing bodies obedient to the state’s agenda are able to attain mobility while simultaneously erasing the unruly bodies that are not. I focus on the issues surrounding the widespread Indonesian massacres in 1965 and the years that followed. This book commences with my memories of dancing as a child, the dancing that later granted me access to the world of Pegawai Negeri (Indonesian civil servants) and travel abroad. The writing and publication of this book would not have been possible without support from Grace Hong, Roderick Ferguson, and Richard Morrison from the University of Minnesota Press. Nor would it have been possible without the guidance and support of my acknowledgments x Acknowledgments grandmother Siti Samidjah and my mentors Geoffrey Robinson, Marta Savigliano, Michael Ross (UCLA), and Henk Maier (UC-Riverside), as well as, Susan Foster, Susan Rose, Anna Scott, Priya Srinivasan, and Linda Tomko. Philip Yampolsky from the Ford Foundation made possible my returns to the United States and to the PhD program that granted broader access to certain kinds of critical thinking about my own and others’ practice of dance. The writing of this book was made possible with support from the following awards and grants: Institute for Advanced Studies, Grant in Aid, Imagine Fund (University of Minnesota); the Ford Foundation (International Fellowship, 2001–4); American Association of University Women (AAUW) for International Fellowship (2001); the Home Country Project (2004); Asian Scholarship Foundation/Ford Foundation (2002–3); Lemelson Visiting Scholar/UCLA CSEAS 2006–7. I thank the family of Ted and Helen Kinan, the Indonesian Embassy representatives in Phnom Penh, and the Royal University of Fine Arts for their generous support. Many individuals lent support in a variety of important and unforgettable ways during my research: Julie Chenot (UNESCO, Cambodia, 2002), François Giovalluchi (AFD, Phnom Penh, 2002), Matthew Brensilver, Princess Buphadevi Sihanouk, Jaime Sarte, Pedro Soares Brinca, João Pedro Gomes, Miguel Angel del Arco Blanco, Leslie Dwyer, Degung Santikarma, Gung Alit, Ibu Mayun, Mohsin Alam Bhatt, Dr. Gregorius Subanar and Dr. Baskara Wardaya from PUSDEP, and the graduate program at Sanata Dharma University, Gus Dur and Syarikat Indonesia, Termana and the family of Taman 65 Bali, the French Cultural Center in Yogyakarta, Maria Hartiningsih (Kompas), Gung Ayu, Gung Tri, Rita Dharani, Matthew Isaac Cohen, Alit Ambara, Lillian Wu, Koes Yuliadi, Y. Subowo, Utik S, Rina M, Erlina PS, Heni W, and Bambang Pudjasworo. Upon my arrival at the University of Minnesota, I received a warm welcome and continual support from the dance program and the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, Michal Kobialka, Ananya Chatterjea, Carl Flink, Toni Pierce, Dominic Taylor, Sonja Kuftinec, and Nora Jenneman; and a community of mentorship from Roderick Ferguson, Jigna Desai, Richa Nagar, Abdi Samatar, and David Pellow. I am grateful for the institutional support I have received in Minnesota Acknowledgments xi from Ann Waltner and Susannah Smith (IAS). I am thankful for the friendship of Hakim Abderrezak, Giancarlo Casale, Sumanth Gopinath, Mohannad Ghawanmeh, Bret Wilson, Matt Rahaim, Ali Momeni, Himadeep Muppidi, M. Bianet Castellanos, David Karjannen, Teri Caraway, Michael Goldman, Cawo Abdi, Keli Garrett, Uri Sands, Gayani Sriwardena, Reem El Radi, Fatimah Zahra, Leila Bonini, and Fiza Jaafar-Tribbett, and the community of graduate students: Rita Kompelmakher, Virgil Slade, Pham Nhu Quynh, Maria Jose, Joya John, Alperen Evrin. Finally, I thank Dag Yngvesson (in whom I place the precious trust of understanding my “(post)colonial anxiety”) and Barbara Yngvesson for their valuable editorial comments and continual encouragement, the Yngvesson family for their support, and Aji and family in Drupadi. ...