Saung Budaya Dance presents : 
Rianto, Master of Lengger Lanang dance, trained in classical Javanese dance from a young age, specializing in the cross-gender form of Lengger Banyumas- central Java. He graduated from the Indonesia Art Institute in 2004 and has been based in Tokyo since 2003, where he founded the Classical Javanese dance company Dewandaru Dance Company in Tokyo. He has performed worldwide and brings his initiative to promote and preserve the Lengger for a new generation. Lengger dance is a folk art that has existed and developed for a long time in the agrarian society of Banyumas. Previously, Lengger lanang was considered to have magical-religious elements which were originally staged as a form of community gratitude in a ceremony after the harvest. Even so, the Lengger lanang dance is currently often stigmatized by society and is considered to spread LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) values in Indonesia.
Performance: 
Sastra Jiwangga: Journey of the Javanese Body
A space between manhood and womanhood, between customs and religious principles, between conscious control and submission to trance, Lengger is both contradiction and reconciliation, a movement beyond binaries. Sastra Jiwangga is Rianto's attempt to secure the survival of this form and a call to eschew strict dogma in favour of the layered diversity and embrace of mystery that is at the heart of Javanese tradition.
A series of studies into the relationships between his religious body, social body, political body and traditional body, Rianto’s virtuosic movement language is combined with a live vocal and percussion score by local artist Julia Santoli.
Sastra Jiwangga is a deeply personal portrait of Rianto the dancer. Featuring himself and a multi-disciplinary artist, experimental musician Julia Santoli on a bare stage, the piece goes to the roots of Indonesian traditional dance and music, exploring nature, spirituality and ritual with a stark minimalism. Rianto, who dances barefoot with trance-like concentration, moves from controlled, hypnotic movements to frenzied shaking. In his body, we see a fluid amalgamation which has stored movements from contemporary dance, classical Javanese dance and lengger, a traditional cross-gender dance from Central Java, in which he has trained since young.

Saturday November 16th at 4:30 pm 
Ripley Grier Studio (305 W 38th ST, studio 312). 
Ticket: $20
Please RSVP using the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNQHFLuuQKb8CQmkoUxKhhtJzqrv-aZXLYkkMHNajFrba7XA/viewform