Archipelago Archives Exhibit #3: If I could set with the sun GUIDE BOOK | Page 23

Such Alus in Javanese court dances
offered Kiran a counterpoint to the
Tandava- Lasya binary that is often
present in modern India’s ‘classical’
dances.
“When I first visited Central Java
(in February 2016), I was taught the
court dances focusing on Arjuna – the
valourous warrior prince from the
Hindu epic Mahabharata- while he
was disguised as the female dancer
Wrihatnolo (Brihannala).
Arjuna was all Alus.
A year later, I found myself
dancing Arjuna in his disguised
form of Brihannala. He is the warrior
masked as a dancer; a man masked
in a woman.”
- Kiran Kumar
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