Born in North Lampung in 1992, Ayu Permata Sari is an independent choreographer whose artistic practice moves between contemporary dance and cultural research. After completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta (2010–2020), she founded the Ayu Permata Dance Project (APDP) as an independent platform for creation, collaboration, and discourse. Ten years of living in Yogyakarta exposed her to the diversity of Indonesian art and its politics of body representation. Her return to Lampung in 2020 became a turning point, an encounter with her own roots and traditions that prompted her to question how culture constructs, restricts, and negotiates the identity of women.
Ayu’s artistic inquiry focuses on the body of Lampung women as a site of memory, power, and resistance. She re-reads the Lampung Pepadun tradition not as a static heritage but as a living system that can be negotiated, deconstructed, and reimagined. For her, dance is both a language and a method of thinking: the body carries history, articulates emotion, and challenges established hierarchies. Through choreography, she explores how movement can build empathy, provoke critical reflection, and reveal the social and political layers that shape women’s existence. Ayu’s independent practice embodies a form of resistance where tradition is not preserved as ornament but confronted as a space for dialogue, critique, and transformation.
Ayu’s individual works include Tubuh Dang Tubuh Dut (2018), which explores the female body by embodying male gestures in dangdut performance as a political and historical reflection; Load? (2021), which negotiates the Lampung Pepadun tradition after a decade of living away from Lampung; and Torso (2025), which questions the cultural and religious control over women’s bodies in Pepadun society.
Her international collaborations reflect her deep interest in cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue. Ayuka (2022–2025), a collaboration with Japanese choreographer Ayaka Nakama, was initiated by Dance Box (Kobe) and Paradance (Yogyakarta). The project explores friendship, empathy, and cultural exchange between two women artists through residencies and encounters in Indonesia, Japan, and Germany, including at Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf, 2024).
Meanwhile, Batu (2024–2025), created with Singaporean artist Hasyimah Harith, investigates myths, spirituality, and social customs surrounding the traditional grinding stone known as batu cobek or batu lesung within Malay and Lampung communities. The work explores women’s embodiment, patriarchy, and empowerment through the relationship between body, object, and ritual. Developed through residencies at Esplanade Singapore, B-Part Festival Bali, and with the support of Dance Nucleus and YPAM (Yokohama, Japan).
Residencies (International Highlights):
2024 — Esplanade Residency, Singapore (Batu
project)
2024 — Tanzhaus NRW Residency,
Düsseldorf, Germany (Ayuka)
2024 — Thinkers Residency, Taoyuan,
Taiwan
2024 — House Next Door Residency, Kobe,
Japan (with Ayaka Nakama)
2023 — Invisible Dance Residency,
Goethe-Institut Jakarta–New Delhi
2022 — Thinkers Residency, Taiwan
(hosted by Dance Nucleus Singapore)
2019 — SEA Choreolab, Rimbun Dahan,
Malaysia
2018 — Dance Nucleus Residency,
Singapore
Selected Performances & Festivals
Li Tu Tu (2018–2020)
Presented at:
• Independent Performance, Yogyakarta (2018)
• Durational Art, Titik Nol KM, Yogyakarta (2019)
• ArtJog, Yogyakarta (2019)
• Setouchi Triennale, Shodoshima, Japan (2019)
• Independent Performance, Lampung (2019)
• On Stage Festival, Studio Plesungan, Solo (2019)
• Indonesia Dance Festival, Jakarta (2020)
0 comments:
Post a Comment