Studies in International Performance Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research General Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders that define nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interactions between and among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and imaginations. Inter-national in the largest sense, the books collected in the Studies in International Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches to the panoply of performances that make up the global surround. The series embraces ‘Culture’ which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or alternate, and treats ‘Performance’ as either intercultural or transnational as well as intracultural within nations. Titles include: Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors) VIOLENCE PERFORMED Local Roots and Global Routes of Confl ict Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS Christopher Balme PACIFIC PERFORMANCES Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas Matthew Isaac Cohen PERFORMING OTHERNESS Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952 Susan Leigh Foster WORLDING DANCE Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo PERFORMANCE AND COSMOPOLITICS Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia Helena Grehan PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE Judith Hamera DANCING COMMUNITIES Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors) PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND ‘AMERICA’ Sonja Arsham Kuftinec THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST Carol Martin (editor) DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE Alan Read THEATRE, INTIMACY & ENGAGEMENT The Last Human Venue Shannon Steen RACIAL GEOMETRIES OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC, ASIAN PACIFIC AND AMERICAN THEATRE Joanne Tompkins UNSETTLING SPACE Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre S. E. Wilmer NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE Evan Darwin Winet INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces Forthcoming titles: Adrian Kear THEATRE AND EVENT Studies in International Performance Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–4039–4456–6 (hardback) 978–1–4039–4457–3 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Performing Otherness Performing Otherness Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952 Matthew Isaac Cohen Senior Lecturer, Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK © Matthew Isaac Cohen 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-22462-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-30959-7 ISBN 978-0-230-30900-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230309005 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, Matthew Isaac. Performing otherness : Java and Bali on international stages, 1905–1952 / by Matthew Isaac Cohen. p. cm. — (Studies in international performance) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Performing arts—Europe—Indonesian influences. 2. Performing arts— United States—Indonesian influences. I. Title. PN2570.C64 2011 791.094—dc22 2010027498 Contents List of Illustrations vii Series Preface viii Preface and Acknowledgements ix Note on Orthography and Writing Conventions xii Introduction: The Spectacle of Otherness 1 Colonial performance of Java 6 Javanese gamelan at the Royal Aquarium, 1882 11 Talk of the town: Les Petites Danseuses Javanaises in Paris, 1889 14 Putting it into practice 17 1 Mata Hari 23 Mata Hari in the Secession 23 An Indische world 27 Mata Hari as celebrity 29 2 Wayang as Technology 36 Edward Gordon Craig 38 Richard Teschner 42 3 Eva Gauthier, Java to Jazz 48 Eva Gauthier in Java 51 Gauthier in New York 57 Java to Jazz 68 4 Stella Bloch and ‘Up to Date’ Java 73 An empty thought 77 Modern tradition 79 More ‘mrrvlis’ than words can describe 84 Javanese dance in America 91 Return to New York 93 A career in dance 99 Bloch as critic 102 5 Raden Mas Jodjana and Company 106 Confrontation 106 Indies art evenings 109 v vi Contents Attima 113 Solo career 115 Paris 120 Lelyveld vs. Jodjana 124 Centre Jodjana 132 Après la Guerre 136 6 Magical Identification with Bali in France 140 What frightened Artaud? 142 Amok 147 ‘La Princesse de Bali’ 149 7 Greater India 153 Tagore in Java and Bali 157 Javanese performance at Santiniketan 162 Uday Shankar 166 Nataraj Vashi 170 Greater India’s legacy 173 8 Devi Dja Goes Hollywood 175 Devi Dja in colonial Indonesia 179 Touring the world 184 The first US tour 189 A Night in Bali 192 The Sarong Room 194 Further touring 197 Dja in Hollywood 198 Between two nations 201 Aftermath: Decolonization 209 The Second World War and the Indonesian revolution 209 Independence 213 Lessons to be learned? 225 Making the rounds 226 Talking the performance past 228 Glossary 231 Notes 234 Works Cited 256 Index 276 List of Illustrations 1 ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ 13 2 Damina, Wakim, Sukia and Salim walking through the fairgrounds of the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris 18 3 Cléo de Mérode in Javanese dance costume 20 4 Mata Hari brandishing a keris in War Dance to Subramanya (1905) 31 5 Circular printed by Edward Gordon Craig circa 1917 for sale of wayang kulit photographs, postcards, and puppets 40 6 Nawang Wulan, originally produced by Richard Teschner in 1912 43 7 Backstage with Richard Teschner and assistant 45 8 Eva Gauthier in Javanese costume 56 9 Sketch of Yogyakarta court dancer by Stella Bloch 87 10 Stella Bloch in Javanese dance costume 97 11 Raden Mas Jodjana in Topeng Mas (The Golden Mask) 123 12 Raden Mas Jodjana being made up by Roemahlaiselan 130 13 Raden Mas Jodjana and Raden Ayu Jodjana (Moes) playing gamelan at Centre Jodjana in Dardenne, France, 1935 133 14 Ram Gopal in Javanese dance costume (1946) 154 15 Ferry Kock and Devi Dja in a Dardanella extra number 182 16 Dardanella advertisement from Penang, Malaysia, from Penang Gazette and Straits Chronicle 27 February 1935 185 17 Devi Dja and company in A Night in Bali (1940) 193 18 Devi Dja interviewed by Wimar Witoelar for Laporan dari Amerika (Report from America) 206 vii Series Preface The “Studies in International Performance” series was initiated in 2004 on behalf of the International Federation for Theatre Research, by Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton, successive Presidents of the Federation. Their aim was, and still is, to call on performance scholars to expand their disciplinary horizons to include the comparative study of performances across national, cultural, social, and political borders. This is necessary not only in order to avoid the homogenizing tendency of national paradigms in performance scholarship, but also in order to engage in creating new performance scholarship that takes account of and embraces the com- plexities of transnational cultural production, the new media, and the economic and social consequences of increasingly international forms of artistic expression. Comparative studies (especially when conceived across more than two terms) can value both the specifically local and the broadly conceived global forms of performance practices, histories, and social formations. Comparative aesthetics can challenge the limitations of national orthodoxies of art criticism and current artistic knowledges. In for- malizing the work of the Federation’s members through rigorous and inno- vative scholarship this Series aims to make a significant contribution to an ever-changing project of knowledge creation. Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton International Federation for Theatre Research Fédération Internationale pour la Recherche Théâtrale viii Preface and Acknowledgements In the late 1980s, while studying shadow puppetry in Java, I stumbled across a musty and yellowing copy of a book by Indonesian novelist and biographer Ramadhan KH, Gelombang Hidupku: Dewi Dja dari Dardanella (1982; The Wave of My Life: Devi Dja of Dardanella) on the shelves of a local bookstore. On the book’s cover was a reproduction of an old poster, dating from 1939. ‘First time in America! Bali and Java Dancers with Devi Dja.’ Dja was pictured in full Javanese dance regalia in a classical pose in front of what appeared to be an eight-tiered Balinese funeral tower.