What can the lived experiences of performance artists in Java, Indonesia tell us about the production and negotiation of gender and local identity?

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malang, East Java, author Christina Sunardi demonstrates ways individual performers have navigated cultural norms of masculinity and femininity to articulate gender and place-based identity on and off stage. Focusing on artists who have participated in the performance of cross-gender dance as dancers and musicians, Making Masculinities, Fashioning Femininities provides insight into the lived experiences of men and waria performing female style dance, women performing male style dance, and a gamelan musician.

Addressing themes of gender fluidity, spirituality, and boundaries of onstage-offstage identities, this book is ideal reading for students of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Music and Ethnomusicology, Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and Cultural Anthropology.

Christina Sunardi PhD is Chair of the Department of Dance and Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, Seattle USA.