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This study explores the role of archives and social memory in preserving the Malay classical dance, Joget Gamelan. Using ethnographic methods, it examines the impact of archives and repertoire on this dance form. Joget Gamelan originated from Riau Lingga and later spread to the Malaysian states of Johor, Pahang, and Terengganu, where it was performed during royal ceremonies since the 19th century. Its popularity peaked in the 1920s when it was recorded in the Tengku Ampuan Mariam manuscript for preservation. However, as time passed, the dance relied on the “memory” and embodied experiences of master teachers such as Zaharah Abdul Hamid and Wan Salmah Sulaiman, as the manuscript was inaccessible. The preservation through time was dependent on the social memory of female teachers. This study employs Paul Connerton’s “social memory” to explore the changes in the dance form. The teachers reconstructed the dance to meet contemporary demands, and Diana Taylor’s concepts of “archives” and “repertoire” are used to investigate the reconstruction of Joget Gamelan for staged performances. This study does not criticize the current practice or identify shortcomings but rather seeks to investigate the “absences” in the form, which can be recovered through archival sources like old manuscripts, poems, and dance notations. By revisiting the past through these sources, the dance form is expected to reclaim its “forgotten” or “lost” aesthetics. The study argues that the intersection of social memory and archives is crucial in preserving the dance’s originality and re-connecting it with the tradition.

This interventional therapy project was carried out for three months in the year 2019. It foregrounded dance as a therapeutic intervention for breast cancer survivors at the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM). A group of 22 women was recruited with the help of NCSM. Certified movement therapist, Mahisha Naidu, was employed to conduct sessions for the women. Each session lasted for two hours on Friday afternoons. Participants were given different forms of movement activities that required physical, mental, and emotional engagement. Through the practice of "check-in" and "check-out," each woman shared her individual expectation for the session, and later, reflected upon the outcome of her participation. At first, the "untrained" group was sceptical because the intervention did not require them to learn any particular dance form, but instead, required them to improvise through their "own" movements. Women who were "reserved" about creating dance movements and sharing their stories evolved with the process. Not only did they become "open" to the sessions, but they started making meaningful connections to their lives through dance. Variety in activities, uncertainties in the outcome, and freedom of exploration were some of the key factors that produced unexpected outcomes for this study. This project raised issue pertaining to sustainability. This issue, as well as the design and delivery of the project will be examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to examine a breast cancer survivor group called the Candy Girls. Candy Girls comprises 26 to 30 women (aged between 40 and 73 years), who are breast cancer survivors in the post-clinical phase. They all have successfully undergone various combinations of treatment such as lumpectomy, mastectomy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for breast cancer and are on the path to recovery and post-recovery. In 2010, this group came together for a year-long research conducted by the Universiti Malaya's Faculty of Medicine through the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Realising the benefits of exercise for the well-being of cancer survivors, Candy Girls decided to continue dancing on their own even after the completion of the research study. With the support of breast surgeons at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), this group began a weekly three-hour self-administered exercise session, that is still, to this day, taking place every Saturday. Their activities focus primarily on dance. The group gradually expanded dance genres by incorporating line dance, Latin dances-based Zumba sessions, Malay folk dance forms such as joget and zapin, and Bollywood dance. While the multi-ethnic women are determined to stay healthy and happy through their weekly dance routines, they have made significant impact on women at large by performing dances at Breast Cancer Relays, Awareness Campaigns and Health Conferences. By engaging with this community of survivors, the researchers have not only been able to observe their activities but also to support them through additional yoga and dance trainings. The act of giving back to the community has further strengthened the researchers' relationship with the study subjects and has allowed deeper engagement with the community. This ethnographic research shows that dance as self-rehabilitation, not only enhances physical mobility and emotional well-being, but forges a strong group solidarity among the women as a much-needed support system for survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the Orak Lawoi (semi nomadic sea people) in Phuket and Ko Sireh islands and their biannual ritual celebration called Pelacak, celebrated for three days during the full moons in May and October. During this celebration, sea-gypsy communities in Sapam, Rawai and Ko Sireh perform ceremonial ritual through an elaborately decorated model boat that is launched into the sea with ritual items to accompany the recently departed spirits out to the sea. This festival encompasses songs, music and dance performed at the periphery of the ritual space as well as during the procession of the model boat. During this celebration, I witnessed the presence of kathoeys (an identifier for transgendered women, effeminate men and transsexuals in Thailand) in different circumstances as spectators, as backstage disco dancers and visible ronggeng or rong ngeng (a social dance or folk-dance form), performers. I discuss the visibility of kathoeys and the ways in which they negotiate their identity in different spaces. I suggest that within the Orak Lawoi mainstream group, kathoeys emerge as a sub-culture gender/sexual group, whose participation in these spaces is unavoidable but ambivalent, depending on the level of tolerance of the community towards the non-normative gender/sexual groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the circulation of Indian music and dance existed since the early 1900s in colonial Malaya, the aesthetic visibility of Indian dance emerged in a more profound manner with the entrance of male gurus such as K.P. Bhaskar (1952), V.K. Sivadas (1952/53), and Gopal Shetty (1954). These masters not only opened the curtain of male dancing in Singapore/Malaya, but played imperative roles in creating awareness for Indian arts and culture by actively teaching and creating a variety Indian dances for the Malaysian audience. The trailblazers inspired other male dancers, who entered the dance scene in the following decades. The 1980s, particularly, saw the entrance of professionally trained multi-ethnic dancing men. While Indian classical dance forms such as Bharata Natyam in Malaysia were numerically dominated by women dance practitioners emerging from arangetram (solo debut) recitals, male dance artists stood as highly visible public performers enabled by technical prowess, innovative staging and choreographies, and media and audience support. This paper traces a non-linear historical genealogy of Indian dance in Malaysia by drawing materials from archival study and ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]