Visiting Professor Brings Art of Indonesian Dance to Campus

Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Dewati Rahmayani said she first fell in love with classical Javanese dance in 2009 when she danced with friends during her first year of college in Indonesia at the age of 17. Two years later, she started to study with a dancer at the Royal Court of Yogyakarta, the seat of the reigning Sultan of Yogyakarta. “I felt so honored to do that,” Rahmayani said.  
 
Her undergraduate thesis in psychology at Ahmad Dahlan University was on the psychological condition of the bedhaya Semang, which she said is the most sacred dance in the Royal Court. She compares the dance technique of slow, strong movements to meditation. “I feel like when I dance, I self-reflect,” Rahmayani said. 
 
Rahmayani notes that the concepts learned in dance can also be applied to daily life. “I love the philosophy,” which is called Joged Mataram, said Rahmayani. She explained the four principles of Joged Mataram include nyawiji (concentration and focus on goals), greget (have passion, feel the soul, keep your spirit up, be patient), sengguh (self-confidence without arrogance), and ora mingkuh (don’t give up). “I feel more calm because I learned this dance. It makes me wiser in my daily life,” she said.  
 
In 2018, Rahmayani was appointed as an Abdi Dalem, a devoted caretaker that specializes in dance, at the Royal Palace—the first in her family to serve in this capacity—and toured in the United States. Court dancers and musicians performed a sold-out concert at Wesleyan as part of a three-day residency held in conjunction with a visit from Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X. “I remember when I performed in Crowell Concert Hall how they really appreciated our culture,” Rahmayani said of the standing ovation. “It was great.” The group also performed at Asia Society New York. 
 
Outside of the court, Rahmayani teaches and dances in Jakarta and in other provinces on Java, and has represented the Yogyakarta government while dancing in Shanghai. 
 
Starting in the fall of 2022, Wesleyan has hosted a dance instructor from Indonesia each year to teach students the classical dance of Yogyakarta. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the Sultan and Prince Notonegoro selected Rahmayani to serve as the delegate to Wesleyan. “We feel so fortunate to be here,” Rahmayani said.  

“For decades, Indonesian performing arts have been a vital component of our curriculum at Wesleyan,” said Interim Associate Provost and Dean of the Arts and Humanities Roger Mathew Grant.  

Wesleyan’s Indonesian gamelan study group started in the late 1960s. When the Center for the Arts opened in the fall of 1973, the 11-building complex included World Music Hall, the first concert hall in North America purpose-built for non-Western performance, specifically to accommodate the University’s interest in the gamelan program, Grant said. Since 1983, Wesleyan has owned a set of gamelan instruments from Yogyakarta, a donation to the University from Louise Ansberry.  
 
“More recently, Wesleyan has drawn on these historic connections to increase our ties with the Royal Court of Yogyakarta in Indonesia,” Grant said of the court, a historic home for traditional arts like gamelan and Javanese dance. “For the past three years, Wesleyan and the Royal Court have been exchanging arts professors, and Wesleyan has hosted three different dance professors in order to make Javanese dance instruction possible on our campus.” 

Rahmayani performed during the Spring Faculty Dance Concert in April 2025, and with Wesleyan's Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, under the direction of Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music Sumarsam MA ’76 and University Professor of Music Harjito, in November 2024 and May 2025. 
 
Rahmayani noted the challenges for students to learn complicated Javanese dances over the course of one semester. Students are taught basic movement vocabulary and techniques from Indonesia, and then progress to dance repertoires that can include difficult poses such as sitting cross-legged or kneeling on one foot. They practice these techniques twice a week for three months and then perform them, complete with costumes, during the Worlds of Dance Showcase. “They really want to learn our culture,” Rahmayani said.