The Many Faces of an Indonesian Dance Master

The Jakarta Globe, Tasa Nugraza Barley

Didik has a comedic take on traditional dance. (Photo courtesy of Didik Nini Thowok)

I’ve never thought of stopping dancing. I think I’m going to dance until I die.”

So said Didik Nini Thowok, famous for his style of combining comedy with traditional and modern dance.

He’s also one of only a few Indonesian dancers who continue to work with the traditional cross-gender forms of dance, and his talent for impersonating female characters in his performances has drawn praise from traditional dance enthusiasts, both at home and from countries around the world — including the Netherlands, Britain, the United States, Brunei and Singapore — that he’s visited to promote the art form.

Born in the small town of Temanggung, near Yogyakarta in Central Java, on Nov. 13, 1954, his first dream was to become a painter. But even as a child his talent for dance was recognized — he was always judged the best dancer by his teachers at the traditional dance classes he took after school.

“I was always the best, even compared to female dancers,” he said.

Still, his hopes of becoming a painter didn’t die until it became impossible for him to pursue his study of art. “Going to an art school was too expensive for me,” Didik said, adding that his parents could not support him financially after his father’s business selling leather went bankrupt.

So when Didik finished school at 18 he began teaching children’s dance classes and working at Temanggung’s Department of Culture to help support his family. His role in the department was to promote and develop traditional dance.

Finally, he accepted that dancing was his calling, and once his passion for dance took hold nothing could stop his pursuit of mastering the art — not even the early objections of his grandfather, who still hoped he would become a painter and didn’t consider dance a good career choice.

After saving some money, at the age of 20 Didik left his hometown to pursue his formal education at the Akademi Seni Tari Indonesia Yogyakarta, a traditional dance academy. He received his diploma in 1977, then began teaching at the school while still studying for his Bachelor of Traditional Indonesian Dance, which he earned in 1982.

Didik said students at ASTI were required to learn Central Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese traditional dance. Didik is now considered an expert in these three styles.

Didik also studied under other teachers, including a maestro of Balinese dance, I Gusti Gde Raka. He has also traveled to Japan to learn the classical dance-theater style of kabuki , to Spain to learn flamenco and, in 1985, he went on a three-month study tour of Europe, sponsored by a former student from Belgium who had studied in Yogyakarta.

Beyond this, Didik takes inspiration for his art from everyday life. “I’m a traditional dancer who learns dancing from both formal and informal education. The whole universe, especially nature, is my informal education,” he said, adding that he has created dances inspired by stories people have told him about their lives.

Didik even got his name from dance. His real name is Didik Hadipriyatno, but in 1975 he played a character called Nini Thowok, and it stuck. Nini was an old, female witch in a dance choreographed by one of his friends. Since that dance performance, which was shown at a number of university campuses in Yogyakarta, he has been known as Didik Nini Thowok.

Through years of practice and performance, Didik has also created his own dance styles. One of his best-known dance creations is the tari dwimuka (two-face dance), in which Didik wears masks both on his face and on the back of his head, resulting in two different characters that are used to show opposing sides of human nature, such as good and evil.

Didik, however, is probably best known for his comedic dances. “It’s not easy to perform comedic dances, many professional dancers have tried and failed,” he said.

He began to create humorous dances because people teased him for performing female characters. Many male dancers are reluctant to dance female roles, afraid of questions it might raise about their sexuality, even though the cross-gender dance tradition has a long history in Indonesia, and can be found in Bali, Sulawesi, North Sumatra and elsewhere.

Injecting comedy into his performances was a way to get audiences to accept him, he said. Didik said he doesn’t spoil traditional dances by adding comedy, as some critics have claimed. He said he believes it enhances the dances.

“Many people don’t appreciate comedic dances, [and don’t] understand the real value of comedic dance,” he said.

Didik said he uses body movement and, sometimes, masks to create humor. He said it was hard to explain exactly how a dance could be humorous, but suggested that people could come to a performance to find out for themselves.

Anggi Minarni, director of the Karta Pustaka Indonesian-Dutch Cultural Center, described Didik as a “multitalented dancer and choreographer who has incredible talents.” He said few dancers in Indonesia were as talented as Didik.

Maria Darmaningsih, a traditional dancer, teacher and vice dean at the School of Performing Arts at the Jakarta Arts Institute, agreed that Didik was a special dancer with his dedication to learning new styles from both Indonesia and abroad. Maria noted how Didik once went to live in Cirebon, West Java, specifically to train under the top dancer there to improve his skills in Sundanese dance.

According to Maria, who has performed with Didik in the past, the traditional dances that Didik promotes play an important role in Indonesian culture.

Years ago, she said, traditional dances were performed during cultural events such as harvest and rain ceremonies.

“More than just that, each traditional dance possesses a value and a philosophy,” Maria said. “In all classical Javanese dances, dancers have to bow and greet the audience before performing. This shows that we should respect others and always be humble.”

She said most people today only learned the movements for a dance. “They don’t realize the dances hold the values and philosophies that actually define who we are.”

She said that through his comedic dances Didik was able to introduce people to traditional styles and ideas.

Despite the increasing influence of Western culture on young people, particularly in Jakarta, Didik remains optimistic about preserving Indonesia’s dance heritage.

“In a city like Jakarta, you perhaps don’t find young people who want to learn traditional dances, but if you go to cultural cities like Bandung and Yogyakarta, you’ll see that young people are still interested in learning these dances,” Didik said.

He added that to this end it was important for the government to increase support for traditional artists in the country. Many artists in Indonesian have a poor quality of life, he said, but they should be valued and rewarded because “it’s those real artists in small villages who enrich the culture of this country.”

He said one of his previous dance teachers had had to work as a hair stylist to subsidise his income, which gave him less time to teach others and pass his skills on to the next generation.

Anggi said it was important for Didik to find someone who could replace him when he eventually retired. “I think Didik needs to start thinking about training someone to inherit his skills,” he said.

But Anggi acknowledged it won’t be an easy task. “Today’s young people always want instant results; they want to work less and get as much money as possible,” he said.