THAT afternoon Abdullah Abdul Rahman, the seudati dance maestro, watched members of his dance studio practicing. He snapped his fingers, accompanying the unison movements of eight of his students dancing seudati. “Tomorrow I will accompany these youngsters to take part in the arts performance of Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China,” said Abdullah at the Komunitas Seudati Geunta Aceh in Langsa, in the middle of last July.

Seudati is based upon pat